Position of Time Expressions in a Sentence

Position of Adverbs of Time

1. Adverbs of time are usually put at the end of the sentence.

    subject – verb – indirect object – direct object – time

    • I will tell  you the story tomorrow.

    • She has an appointment with the doctor next Tuesday.

2. If you don’t want to put emphasis on the time, you can also put the adverb of time at the beginning of the sentence.

    time – subject – verb – indirect object – direct object

    • Tomorrow I will tell you the story.

    • Later she ate the porridge.

3. Note that some time expressions are adverbs of frequency (always, never, usually, often, etc.). These are usually put before the main verb (except for ‘be’ as a main verb).

    subject – auxiliary/be – adverb – main verb – object, place or time

    • I often go swimming in the evenings.

    • He doesn’t always play tennis.

    • We  are usually here in summer.

    • I have never been abroad.

4. If you need to use more than one adverb of time in a sentence, use them in this order:

    how long – how often – when

    • I work for five hours every day.

    • The magazine was published weekly last year.

    • I was abroad for two months last year.

    • She worked in a hospital for two days every week last year.


SHADOW VS. SHADE

Shadow and shade are two words that often cause confusion. When the sun rays hits an object or a person, it casts an image or a shadow of the shape it’s hitting. If you are under or behind something, you are shaded from the sun; hence you are in the shade.

Don’t say “They like to sit in the shadow.”, but say “They like to sit in the shade.” Shade is a place sheltered from the sun.

Don’t say “That man saw his shade in the water.”, but say “That man saw his shadow in the water.” Shadow is a shade of distinct form.

IMMIGRATE VS. EMIGRATE

Do you keep using “emigrate” instead of “immigrate” when you want to say you leave your native country and move into a new one? These two words are closely related and similar enough to create confusion. The easy way to remember which one is which is to think the em- word has to do with leaving, and the imm- word has to do with entering (this includes emigrant, immigrant, emigration, and immigration).

IMMIGRATE means to enter into a country

EMIGRATE means to leave one country to another

• I immigrated to the US.

• I emigrated from Indonesia.

Pay more attention to these examples:

• I immigrated to the US from Indonesia.

   [This focuses on arriving.]

• I emigrated from Indonesia to the US.

   [This focuses on leaving.]

New friends in the US might say:

• Demi immigrated to the US last year (from Indonesia).

[From their perspective, I arrived.]

While relatives in Indonesia might say:

• Demi emigrated (from Indonesia) to the US last year.

[From their perspective, I left.]

In a nutshell:

IMMIGRATE = entering

EMIGRATE = leaving