what is the correct word order for a sentence in chinese?

The basic word order is: person (+ time) (+adverb) (+ place) (+negation) (+ modal verb) + verb (+ duration) + object where you can leave out the things in brackets： Some examples 我在花园喜欢踢足球 I like to play football in the garden 我昨天没上学 Yesterday I didn't go to school 我常常在课堂上偷偷地用手机 I often use my phone secretly in class Generally I'd say try not to build overly complicated sentences but sometimes it is unavoidable.