Practice question · Estimate
What percentage of the world's languages have SOV as their basic word order?
Estimate on a scale from 0% (0) to 100% (100).
Hints
- It is the most common order, but well short of a majority.
- A little over forty per cent.
Show the answer
41 (answers within ±8 count)
Why
About 41%: the largest single group, with SVO close behind at around 35%. Neither is a majority, which is worth noticing: the most common word order on earth is used by fewer than half of all languages, and the popular assumption that SVO is the norm reflects which languages Europeans encounter rather than any global fact.
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