Macmillan Holdings, LLC. Grammar Girl, Grammar Girl's, QDnow, and Quick and Dirty Tips are all trademarks of Macmillan Holdings, LLC. Is Yoda speaking "real" English? In this episode we dissect the subject-verb-object order. xiama grammar English is my second language. I was recently portrayed as a Jedi-ish (wise) character in a drama performance by medical students whom I taught. Initially I thought they imitated my sentence with Jedish sentence structure to laugh at my occasional mistakes in giving lectures in English. Until a student explained that how Jedi talked all his life. I felt relieved. What a coincidence. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/subject-verb-object-order.aspx?commentid=17481#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/subject-verb-object-order.aspx?commentid=17481#Comments Fri, 19 Jun 2009 05:22:13 GMT Christie grammar Would "United We Stand" be considered yoda-ish? Normally we would say "We stand united." http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/subject-verb-object-order.aspx?commentid=12888#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/subject-verb-object-order.aspx?commentid=12888#Comments Fri, 06 Jun 2008 13:24:38 GMT Carolyn grammar And we mustn't forget our old "Grammerian" friend Kelsey Grammer, who as FRASIER, was wont to say "Off we go" in nearly every episode. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/subject-verb-object-order.aspx?commentid=12565#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/subject-verb-object-order.aspx?commentid=12565#Comments Sat, 10 May 2008 15:21:01 GMT Maximiliano grammar Hello Grammarian, Shouldn't you add that Yodish is mostly, from a rhetorical standpoint, the use and abuse of a figure of speech named "hyperbaton"? Ancient Greeks and Romans loved it. Caveat lector: A native English speaker I'm not! M http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/subject-verb-object-order.aspx?commentid=12557#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/subject-verb-object-order.aspx?commentid=12557#Comments Fri, 09 May 2008 15:00:05 GMT rosie grammar British Sign Language (BSL) uses the same syntax, such as "3 children I have" when I am getting confused in using it I think of Yoda, and it all becomes clear! I don't know if ASL is the same. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/subject-verb-object-order.aspx?commentid=12550#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/subject-verb-object-order.aspx?commentid=12550#Comments Thu, 08 May 2008 15:41:59 GMT María grammar Yoda's English is actually English. How you ever heard of theme and rheme?. Theme is considered the first part of a clause, thus, the one with more prominenence and rheme is the rest. The element placed in theme position is that, for the speaker, has more emphasis. As you explained, English commmon pattern is given by S-V-O structure. However, this rule may be broken for the sake of emphasis. If they are broken,as in Yoda's sppech, we are dealing with "Marked" clauses; e.g. People like grammar girl (unmarked). Grammar girl people like (marked). http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/subject-verb-object-order.aspx?commentid=12544#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/subject-verb-object-order.aspx?commentid=12544#Comments Wed, 07 May 2008 20:58:59 GMT Cyndi grammar I loved this, I did! Thanks for the fun and informative (as always) podcast! http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/subject-verb-object-order.aspx?commentid=12543#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/subject-verb-object-order.aspx?commentid=12543#Comments Wed, 07 May 2008 20:38:09 GMT Rex Nerdorum grammar "You are powerful" is NOT S-V-O. /powerful/ is NOT an object; it is a complement (predicate adjective to be precise). S-V-C or S-V-PA As a rule, linking verbs (like /to be/) do not take objects. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/subject-verb-object-order.aspx?commentid=12540#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/subject-verb-object-order.aspx?commentid=12540#Comments Wed, 07 May 2008 14:28:48 GMT Michelle grammar hey gurlfrreindS! im like totaaly in love addicted to this site im like always on it 24/7... English like totally SUCKS ! anyhow im off bye kall mee =) 0415 452 397 .. im like totally up for anything !... http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/subject-verb-object-order.aspx?commentid=12532#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/subject-verb-object-order.aspx?commentid=12532#Comments Wed, 07 May 2008 01:14:48 GMT Jared grammar As a Star Wars nerd and a grammar geek, love this podcast, I did. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/subject-verb-object-order.aspx?commentid=12523#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/subject-verb-object-order.aspx?commentid=12523#Comments Mon, 05 May 2008 19:06:09 GMT Fri, 19 Jun 2009 05:22:13 GMT http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/subject-verb-object-order.aspx feedback@quickanddirtytips.com (Managing Editor) feedback@quickanddirtytips.com (Webmaster) en-us