Rearranging Sentences — Rules, Method & Exercise

Rearranging asks you to put a set of jumbled sentences back into their original order so they tell a connected story. Find the opening sentence first — it introduces a person or a situation with a full name and no back-reference. Then follow the chain of signals: time markers, pronouns that must point back to something already named, and linking words.

Where it is set: SSC & HSC English 1st Paper

Find the opening sentence first

Everything else follows from getting the first sentence right, so spend your time there. An opening sentence introduces its subject from scratch: it uses a full name rather than a pronoun, and it refers back to nothing.

A sentence beginning He, She, They, This, That or Then cannot be first, because there is nothing yet for those words to point at. That single observation usually removes most of the candidates.

• The opener names a person or place in full: Once there lived a poor farmer in a village.
• It often sets a time or a scene: Once upon a time, Many years ago, One day.
• It contains no pronoun referring outside itself.
• It contains no connector such as but, so, however, then, after that.

• ✓ Once there lived a wise king in Persia. — a full name, no back-reference — a clear opener
• ✗ He called his ministers at once. ✓ (cannot be first — He has no antecedent yet)

Follow the chain of pronouns and articles

Once the opening is fixed, the rest is a chain. A noun is introduced with a or an and referred to afterwards with the or with a pronoun. Tracking that progression orders the sentences almost mechanically.

Signals that a sentence comes later

• ✓ A farmer had a goose. The goose laid a golden egg. — a then the fixes the order
• ✓ The king was pleased. He rewarded the boy. — He must follow the sentence naming the king

Use time markers and connectors as arrows

Words that mark sequence tell you not only that a sentence comes later but roughly how much later. Sorting them gives you a skeleton to hang the rest on.

• Early: once, one day, first, at first, long ago, to begin with.
• Middle: then, after that, next, meanwhile, soon, the following day.
• Late: at last, finally, in the end, at length, from that day.
• Cause and effect: so, therefore, as a result — these must follow their cause.
• Contrast: but, however, on the other hand — these must follow the idea they contradict.
• Moral or closing: thus we see, so we should, the moral of the story — almost always last.

• ✓ At last the fox gave up and walked away. — At last marks the end of the sequence
• ✓ The moral is that greed brings ruin. — a moral closes a story passage

Check the story makes sense as a whole

Order that is defensible sentence by sentence can still tell an incoherent story. Once you have an arrangement, read it straight through as a narrative and check the events could actually happen in that order.

• Events must be physically possible in sequence — nobody eats a meal before cooking it.
• A consequence cannot precede its cause.
• A question and its answer stay together and in that order.
• A character must be introduced before doing anything.
• If the passage is an argument rather than a story, the general statement usually comes first and the example after it.

• ✓ He grew hungry → he bought some food → he ate it → he felt better.
• ✗ He thanked the man → a stranger helped him. ✓ A stranger helped him → he thanked the man.

How to write the answer

The mark is for the order, but presentation still costs marks when it is careless. The instruction normally asks you to rewrite the passage, not merely to list the numbers.

• Write the sentences out in full, in your chosen order, as a continuous paragraph unless told otherwise.
• Copy each sentence exactly — do not improve the wording or fix what you think is a mistake.
• If the instruction asks for numbers only, give numbers only; extra work is not rewarded.
• Decide the whole order in rough before you begin writing, so you do not have to cross out.
• If two sentences could go either way, choose the order that keeps the pronoun chain unbroken.

• ✓ Work out the full order first, then write once, cleanly.
• ✓ Copy the sentences verbatim — rewriting them loses marks even when your version is better.

Practice

Work through these before you check the answers — the reasoning matters more than the answer.

1. Which of these can be the first sentence? (a) He was very poor. (b) Once there lived a farmer in a village.
2. Order these: (i) The goose laid a golden egg. (ii) A farmer had a goose.
3. Why can a sentence beginning “At last” rarely be first?
4. Order these: (i) So he decided to sell it. (ii) The horse was old and weak.
5. What does “the other man” tell you about position?
6. Where does “The moral of the story is …” normally belong?
7. Order these: (i) He thanked the stranger warmly. (ii) A stranger helped him carry the load.
8. Should you correct a grammatical error you notice in one of the sentences?

Answers

1. (b) — it names its subject in full and refers back to nothing.
2. (ii) then (i) — “a goose” must be introduced before “the goose”.
3. Because “At last” marks the end of a sequence, so events must precede it.
4. (ii) then (i) — a consequence must follow its cause.
5. That at least one man has already been mentioned, so the sentence comes later.
6. Last — it closes the passage.
7. (ii) then (i) — the help must come before the thanks.
8. No — copy each sentence exactly as printed; you are marked on order, not on rewriting.