Spanish: An Essential Grammar

The subject often follows the verb if a direct object pronoun

is present

The use of a direct object pronoun normally implies that the item to which

the pronoun refers has already been mentioned and so is ‘old information’.

In such cases it is often the subject that supplies the newest or most impor-

tant piece of information and so it is likely to come after the verb:

–¡Qué cuadro más bonito! –Lo compró Carlos.

‘What a beautiful picture!’ ‘Carlos bought it.’

–Me gusta tu pelo. –Me lo cortó Silvia.

‘I like your hair.’ ‘Silvia cut it for me.’

Item under discussion at beginning of sentence

A typical strategy involves mentioning a person or a thing and then saying

something about that person or thing, as in the English sentence ‘As for

Jones, he’s emigrated to Australia’. This usage is called ‘announcing a

topic’, the topic being the person or thing about which something is said

(in this example, Jones).

The practice of announcing a topic is very common in Spanish and can be

achieved merely by placing the relevant words at the beginning of the

sentence:

Las cañeríaslas instalo mañana. I’ll install the pipes tomorrow.

A Manololo he visto esta mañana. I saw Manolo this morning.

Similarly, a phrase referring to a place or to a time can be introduced as a

topic:

En esta fábrica trabaja Andrea. Andrea works in this factory.

Ayer vinieron los primos. Yesterday the cousins came.

Emphatic stress

Words and phrases that receive an unusually heavy stress for emphatic

effect are often placed at the beginning of the sentence, despite the fact that

they are not really topics but the bearers of important information:

Esoszapatos me quiero poner. It’s those shoes I want to wear.

A esehombre han detenido. That’s the man who has been

arrested.

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