Cutlery has a specific place at a dinner table, if you are using just a couple of pieces or the entire outfit: salad fork, butter knife and soup bowl. The easiest of settings involves only a knife and fork. The fork goes to the left of the plate, the knife on the right of the plate.
Place-Setting Specifics
Set the cutlery after you put a plate at each place setting; that way it is simpler to tell how many sets of cutlery are required. It also ensures the items wind up in their proper locations. The fork goes to the left of the plate. Set the knife into the right of the plate using the blade facing the plate. A napkin goes to the left of the fork or atop the dinner plate. A water or beverage glass rests just above the knife. These casual-setting basics apply to more formal place settings. Forks consistently go on the left, in order of use from the outside in; in different words, the salad fork is to the left of the dinner. A soup bowl, if needed, sits to the right of the knife. A butter knife, if needed, gets its positioning atop a small plate over the forks.