Word order in Spanish sentences and placement of object pronouns

La risa

¡Bendigámosla, porque ella es la salvación, la lanza y el escudo! ...

Vocablos

Grammar

Word Order in a Sentence

You are already largely familiar with the syntactic features of the Spanish sentence from the previous lessons, where we examined the sequence of complex verbal tenses, the interrogative and negative forms of verbs, the conjugation of reflexive verbs, as well as the use of pronouns and adjectives in a sentence, etc.

In Spanish, as you may have noticed, words in a sentence are placed rather freely, as long as it does not change the meaning of the sentence. However, in a simple sentence, the following word order should be observed:

For example:

This sentence can start with the object, but in this case, the object is repeated in the form of a personal pronoun and placed directly before the verb:

The subject goes after the predicate in the following cases:

• in interrogative sentences, for example:

  ¿Adónde vas? — pregunta Juan.

  “Where are you going?” — Juan asks.

• if the sentence begins with an adverb:

  En seguida comenzó a cantar Carmen.

  Carmen immediately began to sing.

In a negative sentence, the word order is the same as in an affirmative one, with the only difference being that the negation no is placed before the verb, for example:

In interrogative sentences, the following deviations from the usual word order are observed:

For example:

Placement of unstressed pronouns

The usage of the personal (unstressed) pronoun in a sentence (compare: lessons 23 and 28).

• If the predicate verb in the sentence is in the simple past tense of the indicative, conditional, or conjunctive mood, then the pronoun is placed before the verb:

  Juana te ve, te veía, te vio, te verá, te vería, que te vea, si te viese.
  Juana sees you, used to see you, saw you, will see you, would see you, so that she sees you, if she saw you.

• If the predicate verb in the sentence is used: in the imperative mood, in the form of presente de subjuntivo (which acts in the function of the imperative mood), as well as in gerundio or in the infinitive form, then the pronoun is placed after the verb and is written as one word with it, for example:

   

  ¡tómalo!

  take it!

   

  ¡dadle el libro!

  give him the book!

   

  ¡quédense aquí!

  stay here!

• If there is any other word before the predicate verb (except for gerundio and the infinitive form), then the pronoun is placed before the verb, for example:

   

  Ojalá nos lea algo.

  I hope he reads something to us.

   

  No le molestes.

  Don’t bother him.

   

  Deseo que te quedes.

  I want you to stay.

• If the predicate verb in the sentence is expressed by a compound tense, then the pronoun is placed before the auxiliary verb in all moods, except for the compound gerundio form, for example:

   

  me han comprado

  they have bought me

   

  habiéndome comprado

  having bought me

   

  te habíamos escrito

  we had written to you

   

  habiéndote escrito

  having written to you

• If two personal pronoun forms act as objects in a sentence, they are placed before or after the predicate verb. You just need to remember (see lesson 23) that the 1st and 2nd person pronouns always go before the 3rd person pronoun, which in this case corresponds to the accusative case. The 1st and 2nd person pronouns correspond to the dative case.

In Spanish, the use of the above pronouns separately is unacceptable. You cannot put one of them before the verb and the other after the verb, for example:

You cannot say: me das lo.

Usage of objects and adverbial modifiers in a sentence

If there are several objects in a sentence, the usual word order is expressed as follows:

For example:

but you can also say:

or

Thus, the word order depends on what we emphasize in the given sentence. However, you should pay attention to the group of words:

which, regardless of the change in word order, are always closely connected to each other.