SVO

Writing & Everyday abbreviation · Grammar and Dictionary

SVO stands for Subject-verb-object, a grammar and dictionary abbreviation.

Describes the basic word order of a clause in which the subject comes first, then the verb, then the object, as in "Dogs chase cats." English, Mandarin Chinese and Spanish are typically classified as SVO languages.

Example: English is an SVO language, so "The cat ate the fish" cannot be reordered without changing its meaning.

Usage notes

The two most common basic orders among the world's languages are SOV, as in Japanese, Korean, Turkish and Hindi, and SVO; VSO occurs in Irish, Welsh and Classical Arabic. Joseph Greenberg's research in the 1960s linked word order to other grammatical features. Latin and Russian allow freer order because case endings mark grammatical roles.

Related abbreviations

More grammar and dictionary abbreviations

• sl. – Slang
• Sp. – Spanish
• spec. – Specifically
• sth – Something
• subj. – Subject
• superl. – Superlative
• syn. – Synonym
• trans. – Transitive
• usu. – Usually
• v. – Verb
• var. – Variant
• vi. – Verb, intransitive

See all 93 grammar and dictionary abbreviations →

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