Word order in some uses of 来 and 住

jacobrodgers

March 16, 2014, 02:00 AM posted in General Discussion

This probably happens with some other words besides 来 or 住, but I have often been confused by sentences that are ordered like this:

今天家里来了一位客人。

这里住了一位姓张的老师。

I assume these mean something like "Today in the home came a guest" and "Here lived a teacher with the last name Zhang". I just want to know if a more straightforward ordering of these sentences is acceptable (such as 一位姓张的老师住在这里), and if there's any way to know when this ordering should be used. Thank you.