B2 · Fine points and style
Word order: subject after verb
The subject may follow the verb — and that says something.
At a glance
- Remember
- The news goes last — and an object at the front needs its pronoun.
- Form
- Mi hermano compró un coche.basic order
- Signal words
- llegó
- faltan
- hay
- existe
- me gusta
- Trap
- Wrong:El coche compró mi hermano.Right:El coche lo compró mi hermano.
Your turn
5 exercises on this topic. Your answers are checked in the browser; none of them leaves your device.
Now write it yourself4 sentences on this topic, typed and checked instantly.
The form
The patterns at a glance
Each row first says when or what the pattern is used for, then gives an example in Spanish.
question marker
| basic order | Mi hermano compró un coche. |
| news at the end | ¿Quién llamó? — Llamó Ana. |
| appearing and lacking | Faltan dos sillas. / Llegó el tren. |
| object first, with a pronoun | El coche lo compró mi hermano. |
| after a place phrase | En la mesa había flores. |
| gustar verbs | Me gustan las películas antiguas. |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is aboutThe word that calls for it
Whatever ends the sentence is the new information.
¿Quién ha llamado? — Ha llamado tu madre.Who rang? — Your mother did.
With verbs of appearing the subject follows.
Faltan dos personas.Two people are missing.
A fronted object is repeated by a pronoun.
A Juan no lo he visto hoy.Juan I have not seen today.
With gustar the thing follows the verb.
A mí me gusta el mar.I love the sea.
Example sentences
Ayer llegaron los muebles nuevos.The new furniture arrived yesterday.
Ese libro ya lo he leído.That book I have already read.
En el pueblo vivían unas cien personas.About a hundred people lived in the village.
Me faltan dos euros.I am two euros short.
6 more example sentences
Hoy no ha venido nadie.Nobody has come today.
Esa película no la he visto.That film I have not seen.
En esta calle hay tres panaderías.There are three bakeries in this street.
Llegaron todos a la vez.They all arrived at once.
A los niños les encanta el parque.The children love the park.
Falta una silla en la mesa.There is a chair missing from the table.
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
The fronted object is left without a pronoun, because English needs none: El coche compró mi hermano. That reads as though the car had bought the brother — word order settles nothing here. The lo is what marks which half is the object: El coche lo compró mi hermano.
The full explanation
Read it all · about 1 min
The basic order is subject, verb, object: Mi hermano compró un coche. It is not the only one. Whatever stands at the end carries the new information, and Spanish rearranges where English would simply say the word louder.
Asked ¿Quién llamó? a speaker answers Llamó Ana, not Ana llamó: the name is the news and it goes at the back. English does the same job with stress — «ANA rang» — or with a cleft: «it was Ana who rang». Spanish has that cleft too (Fue Ana quien llamó), but for ordinary purposes it just moves the subject. With verbs of appearing and lacking the subject nearly always follows: Faltan dos sillas. Llegó el paquete.
A fronted object has to be picked up again by a pronoun: El coche lo compró mi hermano. The lo is not a duplicate, it is compulsory. English can front an object and leave it at that — «that film I have not seen» — because word order alone tells you which part is the object. In Spanish it does not, so the pronoun does.
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The verbs on this page, in every form: haber · llamar · llegar · leer · vivir · gustar · faltar