Order of adverbs

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1
  1. It will be held in Coleman Hall at 2 p.m. on Sunday, December 8.
  2. It will be held at 2 p.m. on Sunday, December 8, in Coleman Hall.
  3. It will be held on Sunday, December 8, at 2 p.m. in Coleman Hall.
    Which of the above sentences do you think is the most idiomatic?
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2

My favorite choice would be version number 3. Let’s see what @Andrea and @Anglophile havo to say.

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3

I agree with @Torsten. No.3 is the best. :wink:

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So, the pattern is as follows:

  1. day of the week
  2. date
  3. time
  4. location
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The order is MPT (Manner, Place and Time). So, l should go for No.1, Torsten, manner adverb is absent though.

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What is the order of adverbs?

Because adverbs are used to modify verbs, adjectives, other adverbs, phrases, clauses, or even entire sentences, they are able to function nearly anywhere in the sentence, depending on their type and what it is they are modifying.

If we use more than one adverb to describe a verb, though, there is a general order in which the different categories of adverbs should appear—this is known as the order of adverbs (sometimes called the royal order of adverbs ):

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There are cases when it’s more logical to start with the date rather than the place. By the way, item number 4 on your list is time but what if, like in our example, there is a date as well as a time which is normally the case when you schedule and appointment. So, I don’t think there are any hard rules here, only patterns which constantly change.

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@Torsten, I think you are right, there are no hard rules. Seems very changeable.

Personally, I prefer number 3 as it is better for me and more common I think.

If you look from a different perspective, you will see that invitations whether formal or informal can vary.

I think it’s common to see - date, time, place.

Here are links I found:

http://www.invitationbox.com/how-to-write-party-invitations.html

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9

Date, time, place makes much more sense because when you schedule an appointment the first thing you check is the date. If you already have something scheduled that particular date the rest of the information (time and location) is moot.

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10

Torsten, could you consider this sentence: Steve sang melodiously at the Town Hall from 8 pm to 10 pm yesterday.
(However, in spoken contexts we may use the adverbs according to our need to stress them)

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11

I agree with you, Lawrence. There also is a difference between an event that has already happened and one that is scheduled to happen in the future.

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