Many English words have fixed positions in English sentences. Prepositions are placed at the beginning of prepositional phrases and articles come before nouns. However, for certain words, more than one position is possible.
The word please can be placed at the beginning or end of imperatives. Both Please hurry! and Hurry, please! are correct. When it is placed at the end, it sounds more emphatic.
The comparative adjective more can come before or after the noun. For example, both ten more minutes and ten minutes more are correct. However, in phrases such as more time and more quickly, the word more must be placed before.
Another word which has more than one possible position is often. The sentences Often he arrives early, He often arrives early and He arrives early often are all correct. The most common of the three is He often arrives early.
The phrase half an hour can also be expressed with a half hour. The first consonant of hour is silent, which is the reason that the form an is required.
Separable phrasal verbs also allow different positions in the sentence. The sentences I want to take off my shoes, I want to take my shoes off, I should put on my sweater and I should put my sweater on are all correct. When the phrasal verb is separated, it sounds a little more casual that when it is not separated, but the meaning is identical.
It is clear from the examples that many English words have more than one possible position in the sentence. The phrase half an hour is unusual because articles usually precede adjectives. However, the phrase a half hour follows the usual order for articles and adjectives.
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