Poor as a Churchmouse

Word Order Practice

Listen to each sentence and arrange the words in the correct order. Click on words to move them to your answer area.

Green checkmark (✓) means your current word order is correct so far. Red X (✗) means there's an error in the order.

Why Word Order Matters in English

Word order is crucial in English because it affects meaning. Unlike some languages that use case endings or particles to show word relationships, English relies heavily on word order to convey meaning.

This exercise helps you:

  • Internalize English sentence patterns
  • Recognize how idiomatic expressions fit into sentences
  • Develop a natural feel for correct English structure
  • Improve both listening and grammar simultaneously
1
0
/8
tonight Gerald a like Heart king dining is
Gerald Heart is dining like a king tonight
Listen
2
0
/24
dust is he as like enjoy gold him can wants this he one much and it big to meal to as A as as
A meal as big as this one is like gold dust to him and he wants to enjoy it as much as he can
Listen
3
0
/20
because in however he eating to is soon close to has get cafe going is move on He the a
He has to get a move on however because the cafe he is eating in is going to close soon
Listen
4
0
/20
as saw a paper a drop man piece he as mouse wealthy a is Gerald but church today of poor
Gerald is as poor as a church mouse but today he saw a wealthy man drop a piece of paper
Listen
5
0
/15
the to and Gerald man a it up it giving there was picking shot Like
Like a shot Gerald was there picking it up and giving it to the man
Listen
6
0
/21
was fit paper didn't and That important know dropped bill a the the he it it piece of man very since
That fit the bill since it was a very important piece of paper and the man didn't know he dropped it
Listen
7
0
/13
man very The and for his a Gerald help gave tip wealthy was
The man was very wealthy and gave Gerald a tip for his help
Listen
8
0
/20
food for was That tonight buy week is Gerald celebrating in enough he a this cafe and tip big to
That tip was big enough to buy Gerald food for a week and tonight he is celebrating in this cafe
Listen

Tips for Effective Practice

  1. Always listen to the audio first before attempting to order the words
  2. Pay attention to common patterns like subject-verb-object
  3. Notice how idiomatic expressions are positioned in sentences
  4. If you make a mistake, use it as a learning opportunity - try to understand why the correct order is different
  5. After completing each sentence, listen to the audio again while reading your correctly ordered sentence