The normal word order for Korean is subject - object - verb.
This sentence means “Young-Shik sees John.”
| 영식이 | 죤을 | 봅니다 |
| Young-Shik (subj) | John (obj) | sees |
The syllables in gray are the markers, which, in technical terms, are called particles. These particles tell us which word is which, so we can also say:
죤을 영식이 봅니다
and have the same meaning. Does this mean we can just throw the words up in the air and say them in any order that they happen to land?
No; in the interests of consistency and making communication easier, Korean almost always uses the subject - object - verb order, and the verb always comes at the end of the sentence.
Word Order Markers
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