Verb–subject–object


In linguistic typology, a verb–subject–object language is one in which the most typical sentences arrange their elements in that order, as in Ate Sam oranges. VSO is the third-most common word order among the world's languages, after SOV and SVO.
Families where all or many of the languages are VSO include the following:
Spanish resembles Semitic languages such as Arabic in allowing for both VSO and SVO structures: "Jesús vino el jueves"/"Vino Jesús el jueves, "Tu madre dice que no vayas"/"Dice tu madre que no vayas".
Many languages, such as Greek, have relatively free word order, where VSO is one of many possible orders.

Semitic languages

Formal Arabic is an example of a language that uses VSO:
Arabic script is written right-to-left
Another Semitic language, Biblical Hebrew, uses VSO, as in Genesis 1:1, seen here, and many other places in the Tanakh:
et is a particle marking the direct object of the verb.
The Hebrew script is written from right to left.

Spanish

Word order is rather flexible in Spanish and VSO word order is allowed in practically all situations, but it is particularly common where some element other than the subject or direct object functions as the subject of predication. Some resemble V2 word order, with an adverb or oblique argument at the front:
Other examples of VSO in Spanish:
In Welsh, some tenses use simple verbs, which are found at the beginning of the sentence followed by the subject and any objects. An example of this is the preterite:
Other tenses may use compound verbs, where the conjugated form of, usually, bod precedes the subject and other verb-nouns come after the subject. Any objects then follow the final verb-noun. This is the usual method of forming the present tense:
In Irish, phrases also use VSO:
In Irish, when forming a question the following would be true:
The typological classification of Breton syntax is problematic. It has been claimed that Breton has an underlying VSO character, but it appears at first sight that V2 is the most frequent pattern, which arises as a result of a process which usually involving the subject noun phrase being fronted. It has been suggested that this fronting has arisen from a development in which clefting and fronting, very common in Celtic languages, became completely pervasive. A very similar development is seen in literary Middle Welsh but this did not continue into Modern Welsh.

Inversion to VSO order

There are many SVO languages that switch to VSO with different constructions, usually for emphasis. For example, sentences in English poetry can sometimes be found to have a VSO order, and Early Modern English explicitly reflects the VSO order that is now implicit in Modern English by the suppression of the imperative's now-understood subject. For example, "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may" contrasts with modern "Gather rosebuds while you may".
Arabic sentences use either SVO or VSO, depending on whether the subject or the verb is more important. If VOS is used, the form of a word changes, depending on whether it is a subject or an object. Arabic also uses VOS in optional cases, and in some cases it is mandatory.
Biblical Hebrew sentences can be in SVO order if they are the past perfect tense since Biblical Hebrew has no helper verbs.
Non-VSO languages that use VSO in questions include English and many other Germanic languages as well as French, Finnish, Maká, Emilian and often Spanish.
The North Germanic languages invert their word order to VSO in questions as well. However, there are also many cases of VSO being V2 word order, with the verb coming second, such as in expressions that are before both the subject and the verb. Another case is subclauses.