Placing the Verb Before the Subject in Spanish

Placing the Verb Before the Subject in Spanish As in English, the most common word order in Spanish for the main parts of a sentence is for the main verb to follow the subject, that is, the noun that performs the action of the verb. For example, the following sentences follow the normal pattern: El hombre canta. (The man sings. In this sentence, hombre/man is the subject noun, and canta/sings is the verb.)El aà ±o fue especialmente clido.  (The year was especially hot. Aà ±o/year is the subject noun, and fue/was is the verb.) However, in Spanish it is much more common than in English for that word order to be reversed, for there to be an inversion. In general, Spanish is more flexible in where parts of the sentence can be located. This lesson deals specifically with placing the subject after the verb. Here are those most common cases where this phenomenon appears: Inversion of Subject-Verb Order in Questions and Exclamations When a question begins with an interrogative word, also known as a question word, a verb typically comes next, followed by the noun. This pattern is common in English as well, but not as common as in Spanish.  ¿Dà ³nde pueden encontrar informacià ³n los diabà ©ticos? (Where can diabetics find information? Diabà ©ticos/diabetics is the subject of the sentence, while the compound verb is pueden encontrar/can find.) ¿Cundo va à ©l al mà ©dico? (When is he going to the doctor?) ¿Quà © son los cromosomas?  ¿Cuntos tenemos los humanos?  (What are chromosomes? How many do we humans have?) When an interrogative word begins an exclamation, the subject also follows the verb:  ¡Quà © desnudos son los rboles! (How bare the trees are!) ¡Cuntos errores cometià ³ à ©l!  (What a lot of mistakes he made!) When a question doesnt include an interrogative pronoun, and the verb isnt modified by an object or an adverbial phrase the standard word order typically is retained:  ¿Se graduà ³ en la universidad? (He graduated from the university?) ¿Va a tener un bebà ©? (She is going to have a baby?) But if the verb isnt modified by an object or phrase, the inverted order is typically used: Son amigos o desconocidos? (Are they friends or strangers?)Desaparecieron tus primos? (Did your cousins disappear?) Changing Word Order Because of Adverbs Because Spanish likes to keep adverbs close to the verbs they modify, the noun can be placed after the verb when the adverb (or adverbial phrase, as in the third example below) comes before the verb. Siempre me decà ­a mi madre que en la vida se recoge lo que se siembra. (My mother always told me that in life you reap what you sow. In the first part of the sentence, the subject mi madre follows the verb decà ­a, which is kept close to the adverb siempre.)Asà ­ era la Internet en la dà ©cada de los 90. (Thats how the Internet was in the 90s.)Cuando era nià ±o me maltrataron muchà ­simo mis padres. (When I was a boy my parents mistreated me a lot.)Con permiso salià ³ la mujer con el coche de mi padre. (With permission, the woman left with my fathers car.) Verbs of Existence Usually Go First The verbs haber (when it isnt used to form a perfect tense) and existir can be used to indicate that something exists. They are nearly always followed by the subject: Existen muchos mitos alrededor del sida. (There are many myths surrounding AIDS.)Solo hay dos opciones. (There are only two choices.)Una vez habà ­a tres hermanos que vivà ­an juntos. (Once there were three brothers who lived together.) Inverting Word Order To Indicate Whos Speaking In English, you can say either Its difficult, Paula said or Its difficult, said Paula, although the former is more common. In Spanish, the latter variation - Es difà ­cil, dijo Paula - is nearly always used. The inverted order is also used with verbs other than decir that indicate what a person is saying or thinking. Eso est muy bien, contestà ³ el presidente. (Thats very fine, the president answered.)Es sà ³lo un sueà ±o, pensà ³ la nià ±a.  (Its only a dream, the girl thought.)-  ¡Bueno, bueno, basta ya! - gritaba el hombre. (Good, good, thats enough now! the man was shouting.) Using Verbs Such as Gustar Gustar is an unusual verb in that it is used almost exclusively in sentences that follow an indirect object gustar subject pattern. Thus in Me gusta la manzana (usually translated as I like the apple rather than the more literal the apple is pleasing to me), the verb gusta is followed by the subject la manzana. Similar verbs  include faltar (to be lacking), importar (to be important), encantar (to delight), molestar (to bother), doler (to cause pain), and quedar (to remain). A las vacas les gusta la mà ºsica de acordeà ³n. (Cows like accordion music. Although cows is the subject in the English translation, mà ºsica is the subject in Spanish.)Ya no me importa el dinero. (Money still isnt important to me.)Me duele la cabeza solo en el lado derecho. (My head aches only on the right side.) Inverting Word Order for Emphasis It is seldom grammatically wrong in Spanish  (although it can be awkward) to place almost any verb before its subject noun. When done, it is usually for emphasis or some kind of effect. De repente me escuchà ³ mi madre. (At once my mother listened to me. Here the speaker may be placing emphasis on the listening. It is also possible that the speaker is emphasizing the suddenness of the verbs action, so the adverbial phrase de repente comes first and is kept close to the verb. )Aprendimos de ellos y aprendieron ellos de nosotros. (We learned about them and they learned about us. Here the speaker may be subconsciously avoiding the awkwardness of ellos y ellos, which would be the normal word order.)Un aà ±o ms tarde, el 8 de abril de 1973, fallecià ³ Picasso. (One year later, on April 18, 1973, Picasso died. The subject often follows forms of fallecer and the synonym morir in journalistic writing.) Key Takeaways Spanish, like English, usually places the subject of a sentence before its verb. In Spanish, however, is is more common to change the order for reasons that include both meaning and style.Perhaps the most common reason for changing to a verb-subject word order is to form questions that use an interrogative pronoun.Sometimes the verb is placed before the subject to give the verb added emphasis.