La sintaxis (syntax) is the grammatical structure of sentences that governs the way in which words are ordered. In this article, you’ll learn the proper word order for affirmative statements, negative statements, and questions in Spanish.
Spanish syntax is incredibly flexible. While there are some rules to follow when constructing basic Spanish sentences, you can usually play around with the placement of words and get the exact same message across.
Let’s take a look at an example that demonstrates the flexibility of Spanish syntax and word order.
Le compré un collar hermoso a mi madre. I bought a beautiful necklace for my mother. A mi madre le compré un hermoso collar. I bought a beautiful necklace for my mother.Yes, you read that right! Even though the word order is different, these sentences communicate the same basic meaning, although there may be some subtle differences in emphasis.
Let’s take a look at the basic word order rules for affirmative statements!
A complete sentence in Spanish must have a subject and a verb. The subject is the part of a sentence that contains the person or thing performing the action, while the verb expresses the action or state of being of the subject. The verb is always conjugated based on the subject pronoun ( yo , tú , etc.) of the sentence.
Remember that, in Spanish, a conjugated verb includes information about the subject as well as the verb! Read on to find out more.
While subject pronouns can be used to replace a person's name, many native speakers of Spanish rarely use them at all unless it’s for emphasis or in cases where it is not clear who the subject is. This is because Spanish verb endings tell you who the subject is.
Check out these examples!