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Word order: how to write one

A1–B1Updated Live examples

A word-order task gives students the words of a sentence, shuffled, and asks them to rebuild it. It is the cheapest way to teach the shape of English — subject, verb, object, and where everything else has to go — to students whose first language puts them somewhere else.

Also called

The same task goes by several names: sentence scramble, unscramble the sentence, jumbled sentences, put the words in order. They all describe the exercise below, and this page uses word order throughout.

What one item is made of

The sentence
Short. Seven or eight words is the ceiling before the task becomes a jigsaw.
The chunks
What counts as one token. Keeping the bakery together as one chunk tests clause order; splitting it tests articles too.
The anchor
A capital letter or a full stop tells students where the sentence starts or ends. Remove it to make the task harder.

When to use it

Works well at A1–B1. Reach for it when:

  • Your students' first language uses a different order — question forms, adjectives after nouns, adverb position.
  • You are teaching questions, where inversion is the whole lesson.
  • You want a task with no writing load that still demands the whole structure.

Choose something else when:

  • The sentence has two valid orders. Adverbs of frequency and time phrases often move, and a student who is right will be marked wrong.
  • The class is beyond needing it. At B2 a scramble is a puzzle, not practice.

How to write a word order exercise

  1. Step 1:

    Pick a sentence with one order

    Read it aloud and try moving each piece. If a second order sounds fine, either rewrite it or accept both.

  2. Step 2:

    Keep it under eight chunks

    Long scrambles measure patience. If the structure needs more words, break it into two sentences.

  3. Step 3:

    Decide what a chunk is

    Group articles with their nouns when the article is not the point. Separate them when it is.

  4. Step 4:

    Target one structure per set

    Six question forms, or six sentences with adverbs of frequency. A mixed set makes the pattern invisible.

  5. Step 5:

    Say it before you write it

    Have the class say the rebuilt sentence out loud. Word order is a rhythm before it is a rule.

Mistakes teachers make

  • Not thisalways / to / I / school / walk

    BetterI / always / walk / to school

    Both I always walk to school and I walk to school always exist for a learner. Either choose a fixed position or accept the alternatives.

  • Not thisthe / of / end / at / the / day / we / home / went

    Betterwe / went / home / at the end of the day

    Nine loose tokens is a jigsaw. Keep fixed phrases together so the sentence structure is what gets practised.

  • Not thisis / a / this / book

    Betterdoes / she / where / live

    Rebuilding a statement teaches little at A2. Questions are where English order is genuinely hard.

Try it: word order examples

Real items, not screenshots. Answers are checked in your browser and never sent to us, so you can share this page with a class exactly as it is.

Tap the words in order. Each sentence has one correct order.

1Put the words in order to make a question.

Choose the words below, in order.
5 to go

2Put the words in order.

Choose the words below, in order.
7 to go

3Put the words in order to make a question.

Choose the words below, in order.
6 to go

4Put the words in order.

Choose the words below, in order.
5 to go

Variations worth knowing

Questions only
A whole set of question forms: do / does, was / were, modal inversion. The single best use of the task.
Running dictation
Print the scrambles, stick them on the wall, students run and rebuild. Same exercise, entirely different lesson.
Add a distractor word
Include one word that does not belong. Students must reject it, which stops them from simply using every tile.

Grammar topics that suit this task

Where it appears in the Cambridge levels

Pick Two Activity is independent and not affiliated with Cambridge University Press & Assessment. These pages describe the level you are teaching towards; always check the official site for the current format.

Frequently asked questions

What if a sentence has two possible orders?

Rewrite it. Adverbs of frequency and time phrases are the usual culprits — a student who produces a perfectly good English sentence should never be told it is wrong.

How long should the sentences be?

Five to eight chunks. Past that the task stops being about English word order and starts being about working memory.

Is this only for beginners?

Mostly. It stays useful at B1 for question forms and for structures that invert, such as reported questions and rarely + auxiliary.