Word order: the neutral order, and fronting

Esperanto's neutral order is subject, verb, object, as in English. The -n lets you move words, and moving one is emphasis. Small words like ne, nur and ankaŭ work on the word right after them, so where you put them decides what you say.

The neutral order is SVO

Start here: most of your sentences should live here.

• Mi legis la libron. - I read the book.

The rest of the unmarked pattern:

Questions need no inversion and have no do. Ĉu vi venos? is Vi venos. with ĉu in front, and after a question word the subject can simply stay before the verb:

• Kion vi vidis? - What did you see?
• Kie loĝas via frato? - Where does your brother live? (Inversion is free too, and common with a noun subject.)

A time or place word at the front is not emphasis at all: Hieraŭ mi vidis lin is as neutral as Mi vidis lin hieraŭ.

Fronting means emphasis

Move the object to the front and you tell the reader: this is what the sentence is about, as opposed to something else.

• La libron mi legis. - The book is what I read. (The magazine I did not.)

The -n keeps it clear who did what. English needs scaffolding for the same effect: it was the book that I read, or a stressed syllable.

How marked each order is:

• Hieraŭ mi laboris. - Yesterday I worked.
• Venis letero por vi. - A letter has come for you.
• La libron mi legis. - The book is what I read.

The test is one question: does the moved word deserve the stress? If not, put it back. A page where every sentence is rearranged has no emphasis anywhere.

Habits of good prose

• Keep the -n. It is what makes the freedom safe.
• Front sparingly, on a word that has earned the stress.
• Park ankaŭ, nur and eĉ next to their target.
• Prefer the simple tenses. Mi legis covers most of what you need; see compound tenses.
• Do not calque English idioms. Your reader may be Brazilian, Korean or Hungarian.