Spanish Language Syntax (Chapter 4)

I like to take the things I learn in Language Theory and relate it to the Spanish language since it is so different from English. For me, it is like getting to learn some Spanish all over again (more in depth this time, though).

English word order is a lot more predictable than in Spanish. Spanish has a lot more flexibility as far as where words can go. And usually, the last word in the sentence is the most important and carries the most information. For example:

Spanish

La mujer caminó hacia el mercado.

English

The woman walked to the market.

Spanish

Caminó la mujer hacia mercado.

English

Walked the woman to the market.

Spanish

Hacia el mercado la mujer caminó.

English

To the market the woman walked.

All three of these sentences are structured and phrased correctly in Spanish, and you could hear these variations in a regular conversation.

Another thing to remember about Spanish is that the sentences do not always have a subject. This is because many times, the verb being used incorporates the subject. For example, in the verb voy (Spanish for “I go”), this is the yo or “I” form for the verb ir, which means to go. All verbs in Spanish are conjugated for their subjects for any and all verb tenses (including some tenses that I don’t believe we have in English. Spanish has a subjunctive tense for hypothetical situations and several different future tenses). However, it is not incorrect to still use the subject in front of the verb.

When it comes to adjectives in Spanish, we have to remember that they come after the noun. This can be tricky for English-speakers, and there are exceptions to the rule as well. Also, adjectives have to agree in gender and number with the noun.

Prepositions are also a lot different in Spanish. The Spanish preposition en can mean in, on, or at. It’s handy to just have one word for these prepositions, but it can also get a little bit confusing.

The word “it” is not really used in Spanish either. When you describe something, you would just say es grande, for example, to mean “it is big.” But the literal translation is just “is big.”