Time Manner Place
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Time Manner Place (TMP) describes one possible ordering of adpositional phrases in sentences.
- Example: ... yesterday, by car, to the store.
Linguistic typology has observed that TMP order is common among Subject Object Verb (SOV) languages. Two common SOV languages are Japanese and German. German uses V2 word order in main clauses and other circumstances, but is fundamentally SOV.
An example of TMP in German is:
| Ich | fahre | heute | mit | dem | Auto | nach | München. |
| I | drive | today | with | the | car | to | Munich. |
| Today I'm driving to Munich by car. | |||||||
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.
The other common order for adpositional phrases is Place Manner Time. This is exemplified by English and French.
One way to remember the German order is the acronym ZAP: Zeit (time), Art (manner), Platz (place). Another mnemonic for the German order, but in the English language, is the word TeMPo.
English and French only use TMP order when the time is mentioned before the verb. This is common when time, manner, and place are all mentioned in the one sentence.
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.
