The contribution is intended to deal with word order in three typologically different languages, i.e. Italian, Czech and English, with respect to the grammatical norms applied in written language, and its variations in spoken language. At the same time, principles that operate in linear arrangement of the sentence in given languages will be treated. While Italian is described as a language in which the operation of the grammatical principle is limited and the possibilities to modify word order are considerable, although some word order modifications are considered as proper only to the spoken language, English is described as a language in which the grammatical principle plays the decisive role and word order is grammaticalized. Czech is presented as a language with the predominance of the principle of the information structure of the sentence and hence almost free word order.