The way you structure a sentence in Spanish is essential to understanding Spanish speakers and one of the main Spanish lessons you need to understand. Therefore, learning the Spanish sentence’s structure is one of the most important keys to mastering the language.

Spanish syntax can vary slightly between languages, which can be confusing for Spanish learners. So, in this donQuijote article you will find a short guide on how to construct correct and natural sentences in Spanish, as well as practical examples.

You can change the language in this post from here to Spanish, Italian, French or Dutch.

What is Spanish syntax?

Spanish syntax is the way we organize words to form sentences in Spanish. This structure has several forms, and, in this guide, you will find an explanation of each one and several examples.

However, before you start building Spanish sentences, you need to know the verb tenses, since the verb is a fundamental part of every sentence. The Spanish verb not only indicates the action, but also informs about the time (past, present or future), the mood (indicative, subjunctive or imperative) and the number (singular or plural).

Spanish verbs are classified into three endings: -ar, -er and -ir. Depending on the infinitive of the verb, it will be conjugated in one way or another. You have all the information in this post about verb tenses in Spanish.

It is essential to conjugate verbs perfectly, so that the sentence makes sense. In these examples, you can see how the action changes and who performs it:

• Yo como una manzana (I eat an apple) (Present tense)
• Ellos comieron una manzana (They ate an apple) (Past tense)
• Nosotros comeremos una manzana (We will eat an apple) (Future)

Spanish sentence construction

Here is the easiest way to structure sentences in Spanish:

Basic structure: subject + verb + predicate

The simplest Spanish sentence structure is subject, verb and predicate. This means that, first you must identify who is doing the action (sujeto), what the subject does (verbo); and everything that is said about the subject in the sentence (predicado). This is the most basic outline of a sentence in Spanish.

In a common sentence, the predicate includes the action of the verb and additional information related to it. Therefore, the predicate always contains the verb and the different complements.

For example:

• Juan come una manzana (Juan eats an apple): “Juan” is the subject; “come” the verb; and “come una manzana”, the predicate.
• María lee un libro (Maria reads a book): “Maria” is the subject; “lee” is the verb; and “lee un libro”, the predicate.

Although within the predicate you can find more specific terms such as the complement. Thus, the complement is any word or group of words that completes or adds information to the verb.

Complements are part of the predicate and say more about the verb or action. Thus, the sentences above could be broken down into:

“Juan come una manzana”:

• Subject: who is doing the action -> Juan
• Verb: what he is doing -> come
• Complement: about what or to whom the action is being performed -> una manzana

“María lee un libro”:

• Subject -> María
• Verb -> lee
• Complement -> un libro

The subject can be omitted in Spanish

In Spanish it is not always necessary to mention the subject in the sentence. This is because verbs are conjugated in such a way that the subject can be inferred. The omission of the subject is different from languages such as English, where it must always be mentioned.

For example: “Yo leo todos los días” → “Leo todos los días” (I read every day)

Both sentences are correct, but in the second one we do not need to say “yo” because the verb “leer” already indicates that it is the first-person singular (“leo”). The subject can be omitted in Spanish when it is clear who performs the action.

The order of the sentences is flexible

As you have seen, Spanish is a relatively flexible language in terms of word order compared to other languages. Therefore, the order of the subject, verb or complement can often vary, but the sentence has the same meaning.

However, although you can vary the order, it is important not to alter the structure too much when you are beginning to learn Spanish as changing the order can change the meaning or make the sentence difficult to understand.

Example:

• “Los invitados entraron en el salón”
• “Entraron los invitados en el salón”
• “En el salón entraron los invitados”

The three options in the previous sentence (The guests entered the salon) have the same meaning. However, depending on the order, the emphasis falls on “los invitados” (the guests), on the action of the verb “entrar” (entered) or “en el salón” (the salon).

Affirmations, negations and questions in Spanish

As in any language, in Spanish you will also find a sentence structure for negation or questions. Affirmative sentences have the above-mentioned structure (subject, verb and predicate). While in negative sentences you only must add “no” before the verb.

Examples:

• “Me gusta comer manzanas” (I like to eat apples)
• “No me gusta comer manzanas” (I don't like to eat apples)

It is also necessary to mention that, in Spanish, there is a double negation in the same sentence. This means that, in the same sentence, two negative words can be added. Example: “No como ninguna manzana” (I don't eat any apples) or “No leo libros en ninguna occasion” (I don't read books on any occasion).

As for questions, in Spanish they can be formed in several ways. The simplest is to add question marks (¿?) to the affirmative phrase. Example: “¿Te gusta comer manzanas?” (Do you like to eat apples?)

Another option is to put the verb in front: “¿Comes manzanas normalmente?” (Do you usually eat apples?) And the last way is to add a word that assures that you are asking a question such as “no”, “verdad” or “si”. For example: “Te gusta leer por las noches, ¿verdad?” (You like to read at night, don't you?).

In this quick guide you have been able to see how sentences are structured in Spanish, but you need to keep practicing, reading and writing in Spanish to better understand sentence formation.

Constant exposure to sentence structure will help you assimilate Spanish syntax naturally, so taking a Spanish course in Spain is an ideal way to internalize it all. Don't hesitate any longer and start your Spanish adventure with donQuijote in any of our schools, we are waiting for you!

Spanish is a relatively complex language, especially if your native language is English. Spanish verb tenses are complicated, and the gender of words is something that brings many students upside down.

Learning to differentiate the feminine and masculine in Spanish can be one of the most confusing and difficult tasks for some. So, in this guide you’ll be able to understand the gender in Spanish. Continue reading this article or switch to its Spanish or Italian version here.

Feminine and masculine words in Spanish

The 'normal' when you are starting to learn Spanish is to think that all masculine words end in -o and feminine words end in -a. Well, this rule may be valid for some words like perro/perra (dog), humano/humana (human) or hermano/hermana (brother/sister). But what about others like inteligente (smart), bola (ball) or (caballo) horse?

Here are some examples of Spanish words that do not follow the general rule of masculine -o and feminine -a.

The place where you walk is the suelo (floor), but suela (sole) is the lowest part of the shoe, the one that touches the ground. Therefore, the word suelo is masculine and has no feminine equivalent.

The velo (veil) is the cloth that covers the head, generally, of brides at weddings. Well, vela is not the feminine equivalent of this word. In fact, it has no feminine equivalent, although the word vela does exist and is a polysemous word, that is, it has several meanings. The vela can be a piece of wax with a wick used for lighting (candle) or the cloth that helps to push boats in the wind (sail).

Surely you know what a caballo (horse) is, but what is the feminine of this animal in Spanish? The female of the horse is the yegua (mare). And you should not confuse it with caballa, which is a word that does exist in Spanish, but has a different meaning. Caballa (mackerel) is a very popular type of fish in Spain.

The part of the body in Spanish that ends in the hand is called the brazo (arm). But braza has nothing to do with the human body. Braza (fathom) is equivalent to almost two meters (about 6 feet) and is used to delimit marine measures of length.

Summer in Spain is very hot, so it is good to have a granizado, which is a drink made with ice chips. Oppositely, if a granizada (hailstorm) comes, it is better to take shelter, since it is a meteorological phenomenon in which pieces of ice fall mixed with rain.

The last example is the word bolso (handbag or purse). Bolso is an object made of cloth or other material that is slung over the shoulder and is used to carry objects. But if you carry a bolsa (bag), what you have is a small cloth or plastic sack that you hold by the handle with your hand and use for shopping.

Special rules for feminine and masculine in Spanish

The general rule says that in Spanish nouns ending in -o are masculine (el dinero, el libro, el bolígrafo, etc.), while nouns ending in -a (la casa, la mesa, la rosa, etc.) are feminine. However, there are some exceptions that contradict this rule.

There are words that, despite ending in -a, are masculine. Examples: día (day), mapa (map), planeta (planet), programa (program) or sofa (sofa). And several words ending in -ema, esquema, poema, problema, sistema or tema, which are also masculine. Similarly, there are nouns ending in -o that are feminine: radio, mano, foto or moto.

Besides the ending in -o and -a, there are other endings that you should also be aware of because they have a specific gender:

• Nouns ending in -aje and -or are almost always masculine: el paisaje, el viaje, el color, el amor..., but there are exceptions: las flores is a feminine term.
• Alternatively, nouns are feminine if they end in -ción, -sión, -dad and -tad. For example: la canción (song), la relación (relationship), la excepción (expression), la mansión (mansion), la ciudad (city), la verdad (truth), la libertad (freedom), la amistad (friendship), etc.
• On the other hand, there are other nouns, regardless of the gender of the person, that have only one form. These nouns end in -ista and -ante: el/la artista, el/la dentista, el/la estudiante, el/la cantante, etc. Therefore, there are no Spanish forms such as la estudianta or el artisto.

In addition, there are Spanish nouns that can be used for both feminine and masculine. Generally, they end in -ente: inteligente, obediente or paciente. But there are also other nouns such as: intérprete (interpreter), atleta (athlete), policía (police), piloto (pilot) or estudiante (student). These names are used for both genders: el atleta/la atleta; el piloto/la piloto; el intérprete/la intérprete.

Finally, as you have seen before, there are nouns that have different forms according to gender:

• el hombre (man) -> la mujer (woman)
• el padre (father) -> la madre (mother)
• el actor -> la actriz (actress)
• el emperador (emperor) -> la emperatriz (empress)
• el alcalde (mayor) -> la alcaldesa (mayoress)
• el caballo (horse) -> la yegua (mare)
• el toro (bull) -> la vaca (cow)
• el gallo (rooster) -> la gallina (hen)

After reading this guide, you can say that there are nouns in Spanish that have no equivalent in feminine and masculine, others that do exist, but with a different meaning if you change the final letter and some that use a completely different word to designate their opposite in gender.

The feminine and masculine in Spanish is very curious and varied: it has words of all kinds, changes that you don't expect and rules that are broken. So, if you want to keep improving, don't hesitate to take Spanish courses in Spain to have the best teachers to guide you during your adventure in the language.