WORD ORDER IN SPANISH
‘’Don’t Spanish people say everything back to front?’’
This is often one of the first questions a beginner will ask.
Well, no. We don’t say everything back to front in Spanish! Yes, some things go in a different order, but for a beginner often things can be translated word for word in the same order.
|
Quiero |
ir |
al |
cine |
|
I want |
to go |
to the |
cinema |
The first thing we usually come across which is different to English, is that adjectives (words which describe nouns/things) generally come after the noun in a sentence. There’s more about that here https://www.learn-aprender.com/adjective-order-in-spanish/.
Around about the same time, we might start to notice that the subject of a sentence, that’s who is doing the verb, very often comes after the verb. This isn’t set in stone, but you’re as likely to hear Cenaron Ana y Pablo a las ocho as Ana y Pablo cenaron a las ocho (Ana & Pablo ate dinner at 8 o´clock). Cenar is the verb, Ana & Pablo the subject.
In questions & exclamations, you will almost always hear the subject after the verb.
¿A qué hora cenaron Ana y Pablo? What time did Ana & Pablo eat dinner?
¡Qué temprano cenaron Ana y Pablo! How early Ana & Pablo ate dinner!
It’s also usual to say the subject after the verb when using verbs of communication such as decir & preguntar stating who said or asked something.
¿Cómo te llamas? le preguntó Juan a la chica. What are you called? Juan asked the girl.
There’s a group of verbs which work like GUSTAR. It’s usual to put the subject after the verb with these verbs. And it’s certainly easier to learn how to use them!
More about those here https://www.learn-aprender.com/verbs-pronouns-transitive-intransitive-verbs-verbs-like-gustar/
Me encantan los gatos. Cats delight me.
With what are often called ‘head verbs’ – those which don’t involve actual physical movement such as tener, querer, poder etc., the subject is more likely to come before the verb as we say it in English.
Jorge tiene cincuenta y cinco años. Jorge is 55 years old.
María y Juan quieren comprar esa casa. María & Juan want to buy that house.
It’s only when we get to the nitty gritty of using direct & indirect object pronouns that Spanish word order is really important & very different to English.
More about that here https://www.learn-aprender.com/it-pronouns-2/
