WORD ORDER 3

 

It's difficult to speak all the time English, and to speak well English.

 

Well... I have to say that these errors are very often, and so it's worth repeating something that's already been said in the TEE book.

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As a general rule - there are exceptions when it comes to emphasis, but this would be an exception too far for the above example - the verb phrase should be together with its object. To speak is the verb phrase, and English is the object, and so these should be together: It's difficult to speak English all the time. To speak English well. If you say 'well English', this might suggest that 'well' is an adjective, and so it becomes a type of English! 'Well' in this sentence is being used as an adverb, and so should go at the end.

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However, if you really want to stress the fact that speaking English all the time is difficult, then you could write It's difficult to speak - all the time - English! (When speaking it, you'd have to add pauses where the dashes are to get the same effect.) You could do the same for the second example with commas: to speak, well, English, but it would be best to put well at the end of the sentence because - if we place it before the word English - it takes the meaning I'm sorry to say, such as in this example:

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"I speak Engleesh little. Francais speak?" 

"Well, sorry sir, you'll have to speak, well, English. Sorry about that."

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But you can also say 'And to speak good English' as 'good' is clearly an adjective. To say 'speak English good' is often considered as incorrect English in writing, so I would advise not using it for that. (But speaking is okay.)

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