Welcome to another week of Dear Duolingo, an advice column just for learners. Catch up on past installments here.

Hello, dear learners! This week’s question is relevant to many languages, and to many language learners! And the answer tells us some interesting things about how languages work.

Illustration of a letter to Dear Duolingo that reads: Dear Duolingo, Why do verbs come after the object in Japanese but before the object in English? Why is there a difference? Thank you, In Over My Head

This is an excellent question, In Over My Head, and there are two answers to it—an easy one and a hard one. Let’s work through both.

The easy answer: SOV vs. SVO word order

If you’ve ever studied a new language, chances are you’ve encountered some word order differences in regard to your first language. These differences are the result of each language evolving in its own way over many centuries. 

Today, most of the world’s languages follow one of two major word order patterns: subject-object-verb (SOV) or subject–verb–object (SVO).

Japanese has SOV word order, which is why verbs typically appear at the end of sentences. English, on the other hand, follows the SVO pattern. Because of this, in a basic sentence with a subject and an object, the verb will usually come between the two. (If there’s no object—just a subject and a verb—then the verb comes at the end of the sentence.)

But within each of those parts—the subject, verb, and object—there can be multiple words and long phrases… so even if you know a language uses SOV word order, that's not the end of the story! Where a language places words within each part can tell us something fundamental about how that language works. 👀

The hard answer: headedness

Let's focus on the verb. Some verbs act alone, while others require additional words—and it really depends on the verb itself. Take a look at the examples below:

  • Vikram slept.
  • My grandma hates mushy grapes.
  • I’m giving him a slice of pizza.
  • Eddy and Junior want to play video games.
  • She considered the president mistaken.

Those bolded words and phrases can be thought of as the verb phrase: the verb itself (slept, hates, ‘m giving, etc) and words required by the verb. Since the verb is the most important part, it's called the head of the phrase, and anything it requires is called its complement. 

For example, the English verb sleep doesn't allow a complement (like a direct object or something with a preposition)—you can just use sleep as the entire verb phrase! On the other hand, give requires a direct object (the thing you give, like a slice of pizza) and an indirect object (who receives it, like him). 

(Note that this is what makes the Gen Z slang phrase It's giving so interesting: It's an old verb with new rules… no complement required!)

So another thing learners need to know about the language they're studying is what order the verb head and the verb complement go in: Verb first, or complement first?

Two flavors of verb phrases: head-initial vs. head-final

In English, the verb typically comes before its complement. Because of this, we say that English is a head-initial language.

Subject Verb phrase
Head Complement
I am reading an interesting book.
My little brother is going to win a prize.
She gave an extremely long and boring speech.

Japanese, on the other hand, places the verb after its complement. It is a head-final language:

Subject Verb phrase
Complement Head
私は
watashi wa
(I am)		 面白い本を
omoshiroi hon o
(an interesting book)		 読んでいます。
yonde imasu
(reading)
私の弟は
watashi no otōto wa
(little brother)		 賞を
shō o
(a prize)		 とるつもりです。
toru tsumori desu
(is going to win)
彼女は
kanojo wa
(she)		 とても長く退屈なスピーチを
totemo nagaku taikutsuna supi-chi o
(an extremely long and boring speech)		 しました。
shimashita
(gave)

So, English and Japanese differ in terms of their headedness—the position of the head within a phrase.

In many languages, knowing whether the verb comes before or after the object can tell you how other parts of a sentence are ordered, too. So if you know you're learning a head-initial language (with the verb before the object), other phrases are also likely to be head-initial (like prepositions will come before the noun in prepositional phrases). And if the language is head-final, you'll probably find mostly other head-final phrases (like postpositions coming after the noun).

And there are always exceptions! Some languages have more flexible word order than others, so you might see SOV and SVO sentences—and some head-initial and some head-final phrases. So while knowing where a language puts the verb doesn’t guarantee you’ll see these patterns, it can be a useful guide.

Examples of head-initial vs. head-final languages

Generally speaking, languages can be categorized as either head-initial (VO), head-final (OV), or as mixed (showing both VO and OV patterns). Here are some examples of languages in each category:

Head-initial:

Head-final:

  • Hindi
  • Japanese
  • Korean
  • Persian
  • Turkish

Mixed pattern:

You’ll know word order off the top of your head

Paying attention to where the verb occurs concerning the object can give you clues about other word order rules. Noticing and comparing these patterns can help you learn which word goes where in your new language!

For more answers to your language and learning questions, get in touch with us by emailing dearduolingo@duolingo.com.