The rules

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Style — Plain, Unambiguous Phrasing

Fixes the usage side of §7 Grammar systems and §8 Sentence structure. Where grammar states the rules, this spec gives the guidance a writer follows to keep World English easy to read and hard to misread. This spec governs the sentence; document-level conventions — punctuation, paragraph shape, and cohesion — live in writing.

These are guidelines, not hard grammar — but they are the difference between technically regular text and genuinely easy text.

Rule S1 — Fixed Subject–Verb–Object order

Rule. Keep the order Subject → Verb → Object. Avoid fronting, inversion, and clefting for emphasis; use plain word choice or a marker instead.

Problem it solves. Free-word-order flexibility and inversion (see §8) are a trap for learners from fixed-order and free-order L1s alike.

Examples. Never have I seen it → I never seed it (see morphology M1). It was John who called → John called. Rarely does she call → She rarely call (fronting undone; see morphology M3).

Trade-off. Loses some rhetorical emphasis; gains one predictable sentence shape.

Rule S2 — Plain, single-sense words

Rule. Choose the plainest, single-sense word for the meaning. Four habits, one principle — prefer the word that reads only one way:

1. Plain verb over opaque phrasal. Where a single regular verb exists, use it instead of a non-compositional phrasal verb (give up → quit / stop, look after → mind). Transparent phrasals (sit down, stand up) are fine; only the opaque ones are replaced.
2. Clearest sense over heavy polysemy. Prefer the word whose meaning is clearest in context; avoid the rare senses of highly polysemous words (run a business → manage, get a letter → receive, take a photo → make). Reserve run, get, take for their most concrete sense.
3. Literal over idiom. Say the literal thing; avoid idioms and culture-bound expressions (bite the bullet → accept the hard thing, break the ice → start the conversation).
4. Regular pairing over arbitrary collocation. Where standard English forces a fixed, arbitrary word-partnership, a regular literal pairing is fine (heavy rain → strong rain, make a decision → decide).

Problem it solves. Phrasal verbs are non-compositional and grammatically irregular; common words carry huge sense counts a learner can misread; idioms are non-literal and culturally loaded; collocations are unpredictable partnerships (see §7 and PAIN-POINTS.md §4). All four are the same trap — a word that does not mean what it plainly says — so one rule covers them: prefer the plain, single-sense word.

Examples.

The per-word lists live in vocabulary — phrasal→plain (Table B), preferred sense (Table C), and collocation→regular (Table D).

Boundary with G3. G3 keeps a verb’s meaning-neutral preposition as vocabulary (listen to, wait for); this rule handles only particles that change a verb’s meaning (look after ≠ look, look for ≠ look), swapping in a plain verb (mind, seek).

Trade-off. Slightly less idiomatic and less colorful; far more learnable and far harder to misread. The plain word means exactly one thing.

Rule S3 — State relevance explicitly (cover for the dropped perfect)

Rule. Because World English drops the present perfect (grammar.md G1), use explicit time words to carry “past with present relevance”: already, since, still, just, yet, until now, so far. The list is illustrative, not closed — any plain time word that pins down the relevance is fine.

Problem it solves. Recovers the nuance the perfect used to encode, without its irregular form.

Examples. I have finished → I already finished (finished → past tense + already). She has lived here for ten years (and still does) → She still live here, for ten years (still true → present tense, per G1).

for and since keep their standard split. Use for for a duration (for ten years, for a long time) and since for a starting point (since 2015, since Monday) — this is a real, non-arbitrary distinction, so World English keeps it rather than collapsing it. Since years is wrong in standard English and stays wrong here: a stretch of time takes for.

Trade-off. A word or two longer; the meaning is explicit instead of carried by an opaque tense.

Rule S4 — One default adverb position

Rule. Put manner, frequency, and degree adverbs in one fixed slot: immediately before the main verb (and after any modal or be). A whole-sentence adverb (maybe, probably, certainly) may instead lead the clause. Do not scatter adverbs across the other positions standard English allows.

Problem it solves. English lets the same adverb sit in several positions (I usually go / I go usually / Usually I go), and which are natural is itself an unwritten rule. One default removes the choice and matches the fixed word order of S1.

Examples.

Sentence adverbs lead or take the same slot: Maybe it will rain. / It will maybe rain. Time and place adjuncts (today, here, in the shop) keep their natural clause-final spot — they are not the adverbs that scatter, so the rule leaves them alone. A time or place adjunct may also be fronted for topicalization or emphasis (Next time, plan carefully. / Last year, I traveled to Japan.) — clause-final is the unmarked position, but fronting one adjunct to open the sentence is common, natural English and this rule does not forbid it; it only fixes where the adjunct sits when it is not fronted.

Comparative adverb phrases. The one fixed pre-verb slot is sized for a single-word adverb. A multi-word comparative phrase built with the periphrastic more/most (morphology M5: more quickly, more carefully) is exempt and stays in its natural post-verb position instead: She worked more quickly., Plan more carefully. — not she more quickly worked, which fronts a two-word phrase in front of the verb and reads worse than the order it would replace. This is the one stated exception to the fixed slot, scoped narrowly to multi-word comparative adverb phrases.

The pre-verb slot is the same one not occupies (grammar G6), so negation and adverb placement share one position rule — with one priority rule where both land in the same slot: not always comes first, immediately before the verb, and any other pre-verb adverb sits before that: She not often call. (not she often not call). This holds in every clause type, including be-clauses, continuous, passive, and existential clauses, where not still goes immediately before the main verb: I not be living. / It not be red. / There not be problem.

Trade-off. He carefully drive is slightly less idiomatic than drives carefully, but it is one predictable position instead of several.

Rule S5 — Politeness markers and speech-act templates

Rule. Mark courtesy with a small closed set of explicit words — please (a request), sorry (an apology), thank you (thanks) — never by graded indirectness, and phrase each hard speech act with one fixed, low-context template. World English does not soften through longer, less direct phrasings (Could you possibly…, I was wondering if you might…); it says the direct thing and adds the marker. Directness is the neutral default and is not rude — the marker, not the indirectness, carries the courtesy.

Problem it solves. Politeness and indirectness calibration — how much to soften a request, refusal, or apology — is the least explicitly taught and most L1-transferred part of §7 pragmatics, and pragmatic failure (not grammar error) is the most-cited source of cross-cultural miscommunication; omitting an email greeting or closing is itself read as impolite. One fixed marker per function and one template per act remove the grading and the norm-mastery entirely.

Examples. A refusal keeps G6’s invariant No. and adds a plain reason with a W5 connective: No. Sorry, I can not come because I be busy. (Trailing because-clause, so no comma before it, per G13 / W1.) A request is that same imperative with please: Please close the door. The optional Sorry softener on a refusal is the one permitted concession to warmth — allowed, never required.

Trade-off. Blunter than native usage and less personal; every speech act is unambiguous and needs no cultural calibration. Register itself is fixed separately by writing.md W2; cultural references and humor stay out by S2.

Summary