Spanish: An Essential Grammar

¿Has visto la casa que se han comprado Pepi y Juan?

Have you seen the house that Pepi and Juan have bought?

He perdido el libro que me regaló Pablo.

I’ve lost the book that Pablo gave me.

Position of adverbs

Qualifying adverbs and adverbial phrases

These are most common immediately after the verb. However they can also

be placed after the verb’s object, if any, or in some cases before the verb

(for emphasis of the verb):

Ganaron fácilmente a los ingleses. They easily beat the

English.

Ganaron a los ingleses fácilmente. They easily beat the

English.

Fácilmente ganaron a los ingleses. They easily beat the

English.

Adverbs of time and place

Words such as aquí‘here’, anoche‘last night’ come at the end or the begin-

ning of the sentence, depending on whether they encapsulate new

information (see 28.1) or whether they constitute the topic (see 28.2).

Sentence adverbs

Adverbs that modify the rest of the sentence in its entirety and not just the

verb usually appear at the beginning:

Afortunadamente dejaron de interesarse por el asunto.

Fortunately they lost interest in the matter.

Note: In contrast to English usage, a Spanish adverb cannot be inserted between

the auxiliary verb haberand a following past participle: Siempre lo he dicho ‘I’ve

always said this’ or Lo he dicho siempre (not ×Lo he siempre dicho×).

28.5.3

28.5.2

28.5.1

28.5

1111

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

1011

1

12111

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

20111

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

30111

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

40

41111

28

Word order

288