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I have two sentences :
a. I need to talk to you about something.
b. I need to talk about something to you.
sentence b doesn't sound correct and I have hardly heard anyone using it. I just changed the position of the object. Are they both equally valid ?

1 Answer 1

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a. I need to talk to you about something.
b. I need to talk about something to you.

Yes, option "a" seems to be more widespread. I guess "to you" is not really an object but is technically a "complement", a prepositional phrase, just like "about something". But semantically (judged by its meaning) it is an indirect object, and we tend to keep objects closer to the verb. Google Ngram attests only option a.

The second sentence is understandable and probably grammatically correct, so I think both options are valid. But there could be cases where the use of this word order will result in ambiguity:

a. I need to talk to you [about the things they did].
b-1. I need to talk [about the things they did] to you.
b-2. I need to talk about the things [they did to you].

With the word order changed, the majority of people will take the sentence to mean "they did something to you - let's talk about it".


Related:

  • A question on word order - ELL
  • The Cambridge Grammar of English Language - Ch 4, 4.3 "Ditransitive Clauses" - an explanation of why "to Sue" is technically a complement and not an indirect object in "I sent a copy to Sue"
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