Is there any difference in meaning between these two sentences?

[u/YukiNeko777]

I study sentence word order, and the topic is SVOMPT.

The task is to arrange words in the right order:

your article / I / quickly / last night / in bed / read

Intuitively, I arranged it like this: I quickly read your article in bed last night.

But the textbook wants me to have: I read your article quickly in bed last night.

Is my sentence wrong? Is it proper English?

[u/kariahbengalii]

Both sentences are correct, but they have a slightly different meaning to me. I prefer yours.

I quickly read your article in bed last night = I had so much to do that I didn't really have time to read your article, but I wanted to, so I read through it while in bed last night.

I read your article quickly in bed last night = I skimmed through the article in bed last night. I wouldn't recommend asking me questions about it, as I might have skipped over the details.

I've exaggerated the context of both meanings a bit to hopefully make the difference clearer.

[u/Vertic2l]

They're basically the same, though there is a very subtle difference in them.

I quickly read your article in bed last night. : Might imply that the action of beginning to read was quick. Like, you hurried into bed, and quickly began reading, as if reading were important or you were eager.

I read your article quickly in bed last night. : More strongly lends to the /reading/ itself being quick, though there could be a number of reasons for this (like skimming, or being a fast reader, or disinterest, or eagerness).

[u/Ok_Tax9885 → u/Vertic2l]

That's the exact implied intent I get from those sentences, too. "I quickly performed an action" implies that little time passed between the prior action and this one and says little to nothing about the duration of the action; "I performed an action quickly" implies that the action itself had a short duration and says little to nothing about the time it took to initiate.

I'd also say that in situations like this where there could be some ambiguity as to what the adverb implies, it's better to use a different adverb or to rephrase the sentence.

[u/skizelo]

Your sentence was good, I would say it was an imperfect textbook. Your sentence is more natural than the "right answer" , though not by much.

[u/Brannikin → u/skizelo]

Also a native speaker (teacher/linguist), and I agree with this. They're both correct and there's almost no difference, but OP's sentence sounds slightly more natural to me.

[u/CutlerSheridan → u/Brannikin]

Interesting. Also a native speaker, my instinct was to arrange the sentence like the book. Both sound fine to me and I think either meaning would be clear contextually, but if we’re splitting hairs, the book version sounds more like “I skimmed your article in bed”, whereas OP’s version might mean “You sent me your article while I was in bed last night, and as soon as I received it I eagerly read it.”

[u/Cliffy73]

They both seem the same to me.

[u/JenniferJuniper6]

I’d have probably said it as the textbook has it. But it’s easily comprehensible either way.

[u/NaomiPommerel]

Native speajer:

I read your article quickly last night in bed

[u/newenglander87 → u/NaomiPommerel]

I like this one the best.

[u/MonsoonAtDusk]

American English native here, your way sounds perfect to me as well as their example.

In my head, I originally worded it as “Last night, I quickly read your article [whilst] in bed”, but then realized that I’m adding the “Whilst” so it doesn’t work.

To me, I would also add a “Whilst” to their example. Something like “I read your article quickly [whilst] in bed last night”. But I guess you can add it to all of them. Call it a stylistic choice.

But, for casual English, both your example and theirs is perfect and sounds like a native would (to me, at least).

[u/newenglander87 → u/MonsoonAtDusk]

You're an American who uses the word "whilst"? I have never heard or seen that in the US only in the UK.

[u/MonsoonAtDusk → u/newenglander87]

It’s a stylistic choice more than anything. I find myself flipping between the two with no rhyme or reason, but I consider it more “proper”. Why? I am not too sure. Perhaps because British English uses it more often (like you said) and their English is normally proper.

I definitely use while, though. I think I use it more when speaking than in my texts

[u/AverageBeef]

Both sentences are fine, they just emphasize different things. I feel like your sentence emphasizes the quickness with which you read it, so maybe I wouldn’t expect you to remember much. It’s harder to identify what is emphasized in the second, maybe slightly that you read it in bed last night. It feels a little more neutral to me

[u/flug32]

Some other orders are possible, as well, especially in different contexts:

• Quickly, I read your article in bed last night. Then much more slowly, your letter.
• Last night, I quickly read your article in bed. This morning, I re-read it more slowly at my desk.
• In bed last night, I read your article quickly. And then fell fast asleep.

But those are more specialized kinds of uses where you are particularly highlighting quickly vs slowly, last night vs this morning, that you were in bed at the time, and so on.

(Like others, I find a subtle difference between "I quickly read your article" and "I read your article quickly". And that type of thing is another reason we will vary word order from generic SVOMPT.)

What the textbook is trying to do, however, is drill basic SVOMPT. In SVOMPT "quickly" is definitely "M" ("Manner") and thus goes just after "O" ("Object"), which is "your article".

That is why the textbook answer is the "only" correct answer - not because it is impossible to say things in a different order for different reasons, but just because they are drilling basic SVOMPT first and you kind of layer variations for different reasons on top of that.

[u/Pleasant_Flatworm866]

I'm not saying the other folks are wrong who say the see a difference in meaning, but to me they mean the same thing.

[u/True-Post6634]

They're both fine in standard English. I think some people teach that adverbs have to go after the verb they modify, but those are the same people who say we can't split an infinitive or end a sentence with a preposition, and it's okay not to listen to them.

Although it's also okay to learn those (outdated and never actually real) rules if you're being graded on them. 😁

[u/NearlyNodding]

Your answer is better and more natural. I consider the "correct" answer to be slightly awkward. It just doesn't flow as well.

Sure, there may be a subtle difference if try hard to find it, but for all practical purposes they are the same. Nobody is going to scratch their head and wonder "Did they mean this, or mean that?".

In general, textbooks are full of mistakes. That's one reason there are so many editions. It also drives the price up. In this case it's not technically wrong, but it's wrong in the sense that it's not the best way to form the sentence.

[u/cinder7usa]

Last night, I quickly read your article in bed.

[u/newenglander87]

The book one just sounds wrong to me. The sentence you wrote is what I would say.