Time Manner Place
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In linguistic typology, Time Manner Place states the general order of adpositional phrases in a language's sentences: "yesterday", "by car", "to the store". It is common among languages with SOV generative grammars. Japanese (which is SOV) and German belong to this category. The other common order for adpositional phrases is Place Manner Time, which is exemplified by English and French.
An example of this appositional ordering in German is:
| Ich | fahre | heute | mit | dem | Auto | nach | München. |
| I | drive | today | with | the | car | to | Munich. |
| I'm travelling to Munich by car today. | |||||||
The temporal phrase heute ("today") comes first, the manner mit dem Auto ("by car") is second, and the place, nach München ("to Munich") is third.
(One way to remember the order in German is the mnemonic acronym ZAP: Zeit (time), Art (manner), Platz (place).) Another, in English, is the "acronym" TeMPo.
English and French use this order only when the time is mentioned before the verb, which is commonly the case when time, manner, and place are all mentioned. An example in French is:
| Demain | je | vais | en | auto | au | magasin. |
| Tomorrow | I | go | in | car | to | shop. |
| Tomorrow, I'll go by car to the shop. | ||||||
The temporal phrase demain ("tomorrow") comes first, the manner en auto ("by car") is second, and the place, au magasin ("to the shop") is third.
