0 Vote

I am really struggling to learn spanish. I've been trying for 6 months and I just don't understand how to put a sentence together. For example: Me duele mi cabeza mucho todavia. To me this says I hurt my head alot still. But it means my head hurts alot still.

Help!! Are there rules??

4 Answers

0 Vote

Well, the only thing I know is that adjectives come after nouns, but most people already know that, and I am gussing that you are not an exception.

  • Thanks!!! But don't give me too much credit! - revive2012 Nov 2, 2009 flag
1 Vote

In Spanish, you put direct objects (it,him,her) (me,te,lo/la,nos,los/las) and indirect objects (it,him,her) (me,te,le,nos,les) before the verb. Examples:

I sent it to Pablo.

Lo mandé a Pablo.

But the reason why the case you provided with doler is so confusing is because doler is just a verb that is used differently. Look how it's conjugated - "duele", not "duelo". Duele refers to the head hurting something, so in Spanish it's like they're saying "my head hurts me" or "me duele la cabeza"

1 Vote

A few rules:

One of the biggest differences between English and Spanish is the order of the adjectives and nouns. In English, you say, white horse; in Spanish, you say, horse white (caballo blanco). Descriptive words always come after the noun they describe. Though this rule does have exceptions but they are very few.

As a general rule, except in questions, it isn't wrong to follow the common English word order of subject, verb, object (if there is an object, also noting that object pronouns can come before verbs or be attached to them). But while English allows variation primarily for questions and poetic effect, in Spanish ordinary statements can start with the subject, the verb or the object. In fact, starting statments with the verb is very common. All the following sentence constructions are possible as a translation of "Diana wrote this novel":

Diana escribió esta novela. (Subject comes first.) Escribió Diana esta novela. (Verb comes first.) Esta novela la escribió Diana. (Object comes first. In this construction, an object pronoun is often added to help avoid ambiguity.)

Word order in Spanish can be altered for:

  • A change of meter and rhyme as in poetry

  • Dramatic effect

  • Altering meter of the sentence or phrase as in a song

  • Establishing other poetic effects

  • Altering the emphasis of the sentence elements

Thinking about these aspects of writing in Spanish will help you to learn Spanish with less confusion and fewer errors. Spanish language learners should not think of Spanish as only having the structure of the English language. Instead, they should be open to the increased possibilities obtainable through the use of changes in Spanish word order. Many of the rules for writing in Spanish transfer to and are valid for other linguistic family language members, making the learning and use of these rules a valuable tool.

0 Vote

Hi acc, this is the best thread on sentence structuregrin

Answer this Question