SubjektVerbObjektReihenfolge

Subjekt-Verb-Objekt, abbreviated as SVO, is a basic sentence structure in which the subject precedes the verb and the verb precedes the object in a simple declarative clause. It is one of several fundamental word orders found in human languages and is among the most common worldwide.

Languages that predominantly use SVO include English, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Mandarin Chinese. For example: English: The cat eats fish. Mandarin: 猫吃鱼 (Māo chī yú). Spanish: El gato come pescado. These examples illustrate how the subject, verb, and object typically appear in that order.

Word order can be relatively fixed in many SVO languages, but it can also be flexible in others due to morphological case marking, pronoun dropping, or discourse factors. Questions, negation, and subordination often involve auxiliary elements, clitics, or movement that temporarily alters apparent order without changing the underlying SVO structure. For instance, English forms questions with do-support: Do you eat fish?

Cross-linguistic variation exists: some SVO languages allow variations in the placement of adjectives or subordinate clauses, while others maintain a strict sequence. Subjekt-Verb-Objekt contrasts with other canonical orders such as SOV (subject–object–verb) and VSO (verb–subject–object), and analysis of a language's basic word order can inform theories of syntax, typology, and historical change.