small word order question

[stapler]

I wrote "你們都被我打敗了準備好了嗎？" which completely confused a group of Chinese speakers. After asking around someone told me I should have wrote "你們都準備好被我打敗了嗎？". My problem is that I don't see how one of these word orders is correct and one is wrong. Both feel very right to me. Obviously I'm seriously wrong. Is anyone able to explain in grammatical terms why this word order is so incorrect that it is incomprehensible to native speakers? Cheers!

[889]

Not that I can tell you why, but I agree the first version sets the mind spinning, while the second is pretty clear.

[Demonic_Duck]

1. You have all been defeated by me are you ready?

2. Are you all ready to be defeated by me?

[stapler]

Whenever I read the sentence I wrote I read "you (all) being defeated by me - are you ready?" - which sounds like good Chinese. Im not sure why I process it like this so I'm wondering if there's something specific (a grammar point) that I'm missing or confusing. - maybe the 都 is giving it a "past tense" feeling that is destroying comprehensibilty? Is 你们被我打败了， 准备好了吗？ okay？

[lips]

"you (all) being defeated by me - are you ready?" 

I don't even know what you *really* mean by this.  I can guess, I supposed, but it is not grammatical.

The first Chinese sentence does not have the emdash either.

[eddyf]

It's just a fact about the usage of 准备 that the thing that you're preparing for comes afterwards in the sentence. Think of it like chronological order if it helps. I just think of it like a property of the word 准备 that I picked up from seeing it a bunch of times, but there's probably some deeper logic to it. The exception is if it's a topic-comment structure like “明天的比赛你准备好了吗？” That seems fine to me. But in your example, “你们都被我打败了” sounds like a complete sentence and not like a topic. And it leaves the remaining part of the sentence without a verb in a way that sounds awkward. Basically it sounds like you're saying that they already got defeated by you, and then tagging on a "ready?" question at the end in a grammatically awkward way which also doesn't make logical sense.

[stapler]

Ahh I see. I didn't realise a topic couldn't be a complete sentence. Mayne I've been reading too much classical Chinese or something... Thank you everyone for your help

[vellocet]

You have no chance to survive make your time.  HAHAHAHAHA

[陳德聰]

Honestly the part that made it make zero sense is mainly that 你們都被我打敗了 "you've all been defeated by me" describes a situation that already happened, and then you ask if they're ready for it now.

你們都要被我打敗了！準備好了嗎？ This makes more sense because them being defeated has not happened yet. So you can ask if they're ready for it.

[stapler]

Ahh thanks 陳德聰. When I was writing 你们都 I was thinking "you all" but here it just seems to read as 已經 (the 了 in there confirms this). Does having the 要 in there make that less the case? - does it change the meaning of the 都 from 已經 to 總括全部?

Oh and how important as commas in these kind of sentences in general?

[Demonic_Duck]

你被我打败了 also expresses a past event. Nothing to do with 都. The function of 了 in the amended sentence is what's different.

“都” does sometimes have the meaning of “已经”, but in those cases it carries an undertone of surprise or exasperation. “都半夜了，你怎么还没睡觉呢？”

[coolnicholas]

已经被打败了就不需要再做准备了

[stapler]

Okay think I got it. Thanks everyone