Verb–object–subject word order

Order	Example	Usage		Languages
SOV	"Sam oranges ate."	45%	45	Abaza, Abkhaz, Adyghe, Ainu, Amharic, Ancient Greek, Akkadian, Armenian, Avar, Aymara, Azerbaijani, Bambara, Basque, Bengali, Burmese, Burushaski, Chukchi, Elamite, Hindustani, Hittite, Hopi, Hungarian, Itelmen, Japanese, Kabardian, Korean, Kurdish, Latin, Lhasa Tibetan, Malayalam, Manchu, Mongolian, Navajo, Nepali, Nivkh, Oromo, Pali, Pashto, Persian, Quechua, Sanskrit, Sinhala, Tamil, Telugu, Tigrinya, Turkish, Yukaghir
SVO	"Sam ate oranges."	42%	42	Arabic (modern spoken varieties), Chinese, English, French, Hausa, Hebrew, Indonesian, Italian, Kashmiri, Malay, Modern Greek, Portuguese, Spanish, Standard Average European, Swahili, Thai, Vietnamese
VSO	"Ate Sam oranges."	9%	9	Arabic (modern standard), Berber languages, Biblical Hebrew, Filipino, Geʽez, Irish, Māori, Scottish Gaelic, Tongan, Welsh
VOS	"Ate oranges Sam."	3%	3	Algonquian languages, Arawakan languages, Austronesian languages, Car, Chumash, Fijian, Malagasy, Mayan languages, Otomanguean languages, Qʼeqchiʼ, Salishan languages, Terêna
OVS	"Oranges ate Sam."	1%	1	Hixkaryana, Urarina
OSV	"Oranges Sam ate."	0%		Tobati, Warao
Frequency distribution of word order in languages surveyed by Russell S. Tomlin in the 1980s^[1]^[2] ( v t e )

In linguistic typology, a verb–object–subject or verb–object–agent language – commonly abbreviated VOS or VOA – is one in which the most-typical sentences arrange their elements in that order: "Ate oranges Sam."

Commonly cited examples include Austronesian languages (such as Malagasy, Old Javanese, Toba Batak and Fijian) and Mayan languages (such as Tzotzil). In Hadza the word order VOS is very common, but the default is VSO.

References

^ Meyer, Charles F. (2010). Introducing English Linguistics (Student ed.). Cambridge University Press.
^ Tomlin, Russell S. (1986). Basic Word Order: Functional Principles. London: Croom Helm. p. 22. ISBN 9780709924999. OCLC 13423631.

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[Meyer_2010-1] Meyer, Charles F. (2010). Introducing English Linguistics (Student ed.). Cambridge University Press.

[Tomlin_1986-2] Tomlin, Russell S. (1986). Basic Word Order: Functional Principles. London: Croom Helm. p. 22. ISBN 9780709924999. OCLC 13423631.

[1]

[2]

See also

References