<blockquote>
<p>1.我 [从头到尾] 把他的电影看了一遍。</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>2.我把他的电影 [从头到尾] 看了一遍。</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Both are idiomatic.</p>
<p>[从头到尾] is an adverbial phrase that can be placed before or after the object [他的电影]. Just like the two sentences above.</p>
<p>In either case, the adverbial phrase must be placed before the verb phrase [看了一遍]</p>
<p>#1 place the adverbial phrase before the object. It emphasizes the adverbial phrase [从头到尾](from start to finish) -- <em>What do you do from start to finish?</em></p>
<p>#2 place the object before the adverbial phrase. It emphasizes the object [他的电影] (his movies) -- <em>What do you do to his movies?</em></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-07-16T09:25:27.117Z
2020-07-16T09:25:27.117Z
Tang Ho
<blockquote>
<p>我把他的电影从头到尾看了一遍。</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Is more idiomatic. 从头到尾 applies to 电影</p>
<blockquote>
<p>我从头到尾把他的电影看了一遍。</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Here 从头到尾 applies to 我，which is strange.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, colloquially people can still understand both expressions equally well.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-07-17T00:10:56.703Z
Yeah, I have similar impression at my first read of the two sentences. "我把他的电影从头到尾看了一遍。" more conforms to Chinese conventions and are more likely to be said in practice, although both are probably idiomatic. Maybe, for the second one, adding a 地 is a bit better, 我从头到尾地把他的电影看了一遍。Anyways, no one would care about this colloquially. +1ed.
dan
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-07-16T21:38:21.943Z
2020-07-16T21:38:21.943Z
Siyi Deng
<p>Short answer:  &quot;从头到尾&quot;  and  &quot;把他的电影&quot; are two adverbs having the equal weight, so you can put either one first.</p>
<hr />
<p>Detailed answer:</p>
<p>To analysis a chinese sentence, is very important to know the basic structure:</p>
<p>主语  +  谓语  + 宾语.</p>
<ul>
<li>主语 includes the &quot;形容词&quot;  ( adjective, which decorates the 主语 )</li>
<li>谓语 includes the &quot;副词&quot; ( adverb, which decorates the 谓语 )</li>
<li>宾语 includes the &quot;形容词&quot;  (adjective)</li>
</ul>
<p>so, following is a complete structure:</p>
<p>(形容词 + 主语) + (副词 + 谓语 + 副词) + (形容词 + 宾语)</p>
<p>in your example:</p>
<p>我从头到尾把他的电影看了一遍</p>
<ul>
<li>主语: 我</li>
<li>谓语: 看</li>
<li>副词 before 谓语: 从头到尾, 把他的电影</li>
<li>副词 after 谓语:  了, 一遍</li>
</ul>
<p>make sense.</p>
<p>in your example 2:</p>
<p>我把他的电影从头到尾看了一遍</p>
<ul>
<li>主语: 我</li>
<li>谓语: 看</li>
<li>副词 before 谓语: 把他的电影, 从头到尾</li>
<li>副词 after 谓语:  了, 一遍</li>
</ul>
<p>you may find that,  (把他的电影),  (从头到尾)  are two adverbs has a position before the 谓语. This is quite common and they often have a equal position.</p>
<p>so, the final explaination is:  Both sentence is correct, choose whichever you want.</p>
<p>also other examples:</p>
<ul>
<li>我 开开心心, 嘴里哼着歌地 工作.</li>
<li>我 嘴里哼着歌, 开开心心地 工作.</li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-07-16T09:52:21.380Z
2020-07-16T09:52:21.380Z
Siwei
<p>Both sound idiomatic and can be used interchangeably, but both can bring more or less confusion without context.
Two ways to understand those sentences :</p>
<ol>
<li>&quot;I've seen his movie (from the beginning to the end) entirely&quot;;</li>
<li>&quot;I've seen entirely (all of) his movies&quot;. (here 電影 is considered as a plural)</li>
</ol>
<p>This confusion can be solved in either way:</p>
<ol>
<li>say &quot;我从头到尾把他的电影<strong>全都</strong>看了一遍。&quot; to emphasis you're talking about a collection and that you have seen every single movie of him ;</li>
<li>let your interlocutor deduce himself from the film director's recent activities whether you're talking about a collection (old movies) or <strong>the</strong> movie (the recent one that everybody knows).</li>
</ol>
<p>This is typical in Chinese: context is everything.</p>
<p>Now, if you are extremely loyal to the etymology, you may feel that 从头到尾
should qualify something having &quot;length&quot;. Taking your example, when 从头到尾 is
applied to 電影, it's fine, because movies have a running time. However, when 从
头到尾 is applied to a collection (of movies here) is a bit odd. There is other manners to say &quot;every single one&quot;, for instance, 悉數. It's all about accuracy.
In everyday life, people understand themselves. My point here is to say that
under ambiguity, I'd tend to understand the sentence logically, i.e. as &quot;I've
seen his movie (from the beginning to the end) entirely&quot;. The latter sentence brings more confusion than the former one because when you said &quot;我把他的电影...&quot; we don't know at that point whether is about &quot;movie&quot; or &quot;movies&quot; and then comes the ambiguous adverb 从头到尾.</p>
<p><strong>Bonus</strong>, about precision.</p>
<p>There is a similar phenomenon in French with the expression &quot;de A à Z&quot; (from A
to Z) which means etymologically &quot;from the beginning to the end&quot;. It sounds a
bit weird to qualify something hasn't extremities (or more generally, not
sorted). But this meaning has later been extended to &quot;entirely&quot; and it's fine to
say &quot;J'ai traversé la ville de A à Z&quot; (I crossed the city entirely).</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-07-26T04:55:56.197Z
2020-07-26T05:04:54.857Z
2020-07-26T05:04:54.857Z
Firmin Martin
<blockquote>
<ol>
<li>我从头到尾把他的电影看了一遍</li>
</ol>
</blockquote>
<p>是把他所有电影全都看了一遍，定义很清晰。</p>
<blockquote>
<ol start="2">
<li>我把他的电影从头到尾看了一遍</li>
</ol>
</blockquote>
<p>是我把他某一部电影从头到尾看了一遍，并且有把他的电影全都看完了的模糊的含义</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-07-16T09:10:12.010Z
Thank you for posting an answer. It's better if you reply in the same language of the question, as the author may or may not be fluent enough in Chinese to understand you. If your English is not fluent enough, we will help you revise it.
blackgreen
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-07-16T08:58:34.193Z
2020-07-16T09:10:48.063Z
2020-07-16T09:10:48.063Z
鵺野鳴介
<blockquote>
<p>我从头到尾把他的电影看了一遍。</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>我把他的电影从头到尾看了一遍。</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Which of the two sentences above is more idiomatic?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-07-16T08:44:17.660Z
Both sound idiomatic to me.
Stan
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-07-17T07:59:19.093Z
idiomatic: "Peculiar to or characteristic of the style or manner of a particular group or people." How can you be 'more idiomatic'?
Pedroski
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-07-17T08:39:50.193Z
@Pedroski What I'm trying to say is which sentence sounds more natural. Please correct me if my expression is unnatural. https://i.imgur.com/sunZ0CZ.png
Demarco Glover
<grammar><phrase>
Where to put 从头到尾 in a sentence?
# Where to put 从头到尾 in a sentence?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-07-16)

> 我从头到尾把他的电影看了一遍。

> 我把他的电影从头到尾看了一遍。

Which of the two sentences above is more idiomatic?

**Tags:** grammar, phrase

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Both sound idiomatic to me.  
> **username_2**: idiomatic: "Peculiar to or characteristic of the style or manner of a particular group or people." How can you be 'more idiomatic'?  
> **username_0**: @username_2 What I'm trying to say is which sentence sounds more natural. Please correct me if my expression is unnatural. https://i.imgur.com/sunZ0CZ.png  

---

## 5 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2020-07-16. Score: 4 | Accepted answer

> 1.我 [从头到尾] 把他的电影看了一遍。

> 2.我把他的电影 [从头到尾] 看了一遍。

Both are idiomatic.

[从头到尾] is an adverbial phrase that can be placed before or after the object [他的电影]. Just like the two sentences above.

In either case, the adverbial phrase must be placed before the verb phrase [看了一遍]

#1 place the adverbial phrase before the object. It emphasizes the adverbial phrase [从头到尾](from start to finish) -- *What do you do from start to finish?*

#2 place the object before the adverbial phrase. It emphasizes the object [他的电影] (his movies) -- *What do you do to his movies?*


---

### Answer by username_4 on 2020-07-16. Score: 3

> 我把他的电影从头到尾看了一遍。

Is more idiomatic. 从头到尾 applies to 电影

> 我从头到尾把他的电影看了一遍。

Here 从头到尾 applies to 我，which is strange.

Nevertheless, colloquially people can still understand both expressions equally well.

> **Comments:**
> **username_5**: Yeah, I have similar impression at my first read of the two sentences. "我把他的电影从头到尾看了一遍。" more conforms to Chinese conventions and are more likely to be said in practice, although both are probably idiomatic. Maybe, for the second one, adding a 地 is a bit better, 我从头到尾地把他的电影看了一遍。Anyways, no one would care about this colloquially. +1ed.  

---

### Answer by username_6 on 2020-07-16. Score: 1

Short answer: "从头到尾" and "把他的电影" are two adverbs having the equal weight, so you can put either one first.

---

Detailed answer:

To analysis a chinese sentence, is very important to know the basic structure:

主语 + 谓语 + 宾语.

* 主语 includes the "形容词" ( adjective, which decorates the 主语 )
* 谓语 includes the "副词" ( adverb, which decorates the 谓语 )
* 宾语 includes the "形容词" (adjective)

so, following is a complete structure:

(形容词 + 主语) + (副词 + 谓语 + 副词) + (形容词 + 宾语)

in your example:

我从头到尾把他的电影看了一遍

* 主语: 我
* 谓语: 看
* 副词 before 谓语: 从头到尾, 把他的电影
* 副词 after 谓语: 了, 一遍

make sense.

in your example 2:

我把他的电影从头到尾看了一遍

* 主语: 我
* 谓语: 看
* 副词 before 谓语: 把他的电影, 从头到尾
* 副词 after 谓语: 了, 一遍

you may find that, (把他的电影), (从头到尾) are two adverbs has a position before the 谓语. This is quite common and they often have a equal position.

so, the final explaination is: Both sentence is correct, choose whichever you want.

also other examples:

* 我 开开心心, 嘴里哼着歌地 工作.
* 我 嘴里哼着歌, 开开心心地 工作.


---

### Answer by username_7 on 2020-07-26. Score: 1

Both sound idiomatic and can be used interchangeably, but both can bring more or less confusion without context.
Two ways to understand those sentences :

1. "I've seen his movie (from the beginning to the end) entirely";
2. "I've seen entirely (all of) his movies". (here 電影 is considered as a plural)

This confusion can be solved in either way:

1. say "我从头到尾把他的电影**全都**看了一遍。" to emphasis you're talking about a collection and that you have seen every single movie of him ;
2. let your interlocutor deduce himself from the film director's recent activities whether you're talking about a collection (old movies) or **the** movie (the recent one that everybody knows).

This is typical in Chinese: context is everything.

Now, if you are extremely loyal to the etymology, you may feel that 从头到尾
should qualify something having "length". Taking your example, when 从头到尾 is
applied to 電影, it's fine, because movies have a running time. However, when 从
头到尾 is applied to a collection (of movies here) is a bit odd. There is other manners to say "every single one", for instance, 悉數. It's all about accuracy.
In everyday life, people understand themselves. My point here is to say that
under ambiguity, I'd tend to understand the sentence logically, i.e. as "I've
seen his movie (from the beginning to the end) entirely". The latter sentence brings more confusion than the former one because when you said "我把他的电影..." we don't know at that point whether is about "movie" or "movies" and then comes the ambiguous adverb 从头到尾.

**Bonus**, about precision.

There is a similar phenomenon in French with the expression "de A à Z" (from A
to Z) which means etymologically "from the beginning to the end". It sounds a
bit weird to qualify something hasn't extremities (or more generally, not
sorted). But this meaning has later been extended to "entirely" and it's fine to
say "J'ai traversé la ville de A à Z" (I crossed the city entirely).


---

### Answer by username_8 on 2020-07-16. Score: 1

> 1. 我从头到尾把他的电影看了一遍

是把他所有电影全都看了一遍，定义很清晰。

> 2. 我把他的电影从头到尾看了一遍

是我把他某一部电影从头到尾看了一遍，并且有把他的电影全都看完了的模糊的含义

> **Comments:**
> **username_9**: Thank you for posting an answer. It's better if you reply in the same language of the question, as the author may or may not be fluent enough in Chinese to understand you. If your English is not fluent enough, we will help you revise it.  

---

