Learn English – “I ordered us…” vs. “I ordered for us…” vs “I ordered … for us”

grammaticalityword-order

I usually use a phrase such as:

(1) I ordered us a box.

Would it be more correct to say:

(2) I ordered for us a box.

Or, better still:

(3) I ordered a box for us.

Example 3 sounds the most correct, but are 1 and 2 improper English or are they perfectly valid in written form?

Best Answer

(1) and (3) are equally grammatical, but (2) is ungrammatical. Order is a ditransitive verb, which means it can be followed by an indirect and a direct object as in (1), but it is possible to replace the direct object with a prepositional phrase, as in (3).