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Placement of pronouns in Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| lumien Newbie United States Joined 5894 days ago 4 posts - 4 votes | Message 1 of 10 08 January 2009 at 10:05am | IP Logged | |||||
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Hello,
I am currently learning Spanish via the "Learning Spanish Like Crazy" cd's. I have also completed most of the base Michael Thomas Method (although I took a break between it and LSLC). My question today is on the placement of pronouns in declarative as well as interogative sentences. Although I can not look up an exact example right now, it seems as though LSLC somtimes places the pronoun before the verb (which from what I read is normally correct) but then sometimes after the verb - which is confusing me. For instance, sometimes the recording will say a sentence with the pronoun before the verb such as: Tu hablas espanol? but then turn around and use the pronoun after the verb such as: Come usted todo los dias. and I swear I have heard it on the recordings as: Usted Come todo los dias. Please help clear up my confusion. Jason Edited by lumien on 08 January 2009 at 10:06am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| TheBiscuit Tetraglot Senior Member Mexico Joined 5931 days ago 532 posts - 619 votes  Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Italian Studies: German, Croatian | Message 2 of 10 08 January 2009 at 10:20am | IP Logged | |||||
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Most of the time you won't actually need the pronouns as they are more for emphasis/clarification - it's like saying 'YOU speak' or 'YOU eat every day' in English.
The pronoun can go after the verb as word order is a bit more flexible in Spanish. I've even heard it used at the end of a sentence, especially if it's someone's name. As the verb form for usted is the same as he/she/it, you may need to throw in usted to make it clear who you're refering to or that you're not speaking using the tú form. With tú it is more obvious as it has its own verb ending so there is no need to use it that often for clarification. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| lumien Newbie United States Joined 5894 days ago 4 posts - 4 votes | Message 3 of 10 08 January 2009 at 1:05pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Thanks for the explanation - I won't worry too much about it then.
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| Andybolg Triglot Newbie Norway Joined 5996 days ago 6 posts - 6 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, German Studies: Japanese | Message 4 of 10 08 January 2009 at 2:52pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Isn't there any kind of "standard" word order? Would these sentences be correct?
- ¿Por qué no estudia Susanne alemán? - Porque no se interesa Alemania. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
 Hencke Tetraglot Moderator Spain Joined 6902 days ago 2340 posts - 2444 votes Speaks: Swedish*, Finnish, EnglishC2, Spanish Studies: Mandarin Personal Language Map | Message 6 of 10 09 January 2009 at 4:38am | IP Logged | |||||
All the following combinations are possible: ¿Susanne por qué no estudia alemán? ¿Por qué Susanne no estudia alemán? ¿Por qué no estudia Susanne alemán? ¿Por qué no estudia alemán Susanne ? Several posters have already said that the word order is flexible. As far as I can see noone has mentioned what the difference is: that the different word orders are used to emphasise the elements in the sentence in different ways.
This is grammatically correct, though it is very strange in style, and the meaning "Because Germany is not interested." is perhaps not what you were after. Edited by Hencke on 09 January 2009 at 4:42am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Hencke Tetraglot Moderator Spain Joined 6902 days ago 2340 posts - 2444 votes Speaks: Swedish*, Finnish, EnglishC2, Spanish Studies: Mandarin Personal Language Map | Message 7 of 10 09 January 2009 at 4:41am | IP Logged | |||||
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- Edited by Hencke on 09 January 2009 at 4:41am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Andybolg Triglot Newbie Norway Joined 5996 days ago 6 posts - 6 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, German Studies: Japanese | Message 8 of 10 09 January 2009 at 12:21pm | IP Logged | |||||
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No, I want to say: "Because she is not interested in Germany".
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