A standard Spanish sentence puts the subject first, the verb second, and the object last — exactly like English. Juan come pan. / "Juan eats bread." If you understand this, you can build hundreds of correct Spanish sentences from day one. This page covers the basic SVO pattern, what happens to the subject pronoun (it usually disappears), where no goes for negation, how to make a yes/no question, and where object pronouns sit.
Spanish word order is more flexible than English, but the default — the order you should reach for unless you have a reason to do otherwise — is SVO. Get comfortable with this first, and the variations covered on the word-order flexibility page will be much easier later.
The basic pattern: Subject + Verb + Object
| Subject | Verb | Object | Translation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marta | come | una manzana. | Marta eats an apple. |
| Mi hermano | conduce | un coche rojo. | My brother drives a red car. |
| Los niños | quieren | helado. | The children want ice cream. |
| Yo | hablo | español. | I speak Spanish. |
Pablo bebe café por la mañana.
Pablo drinks coffee in the morning.
Mi madre prepara la cena los domingos.
My mother makes dinner on Sundays.
Los estudiantes leen el libro.
The students read the book.
If you can spot the subject, verb, and object in these sentences, you have the skeleton of Spanish syntax. Adverbs of time (por la mañana, los domingos) tend to go at the end or the beginning — they are flexible.
The subject pronoun usually disappears
This is the single biggest difference from English. Spanish verbs already carry person and number in their endings, so the subject pronoun (yo, tú, él, ella, nosotros, vosotros, ellos, ellas) is dropped in most ordinary sentences.
Hablo español y un poco de francés.
I speak Spanish and a bit of French.
¿Quieres un café?
Do you want a coffee?
Vivimos en Madrid desde hace cinco años.
We've been living in Madrid for five years.
Notice that none of these sentences has a yo, tú, or nosotros — the verb endings (-o, -es, -mos) are enough. Adding them is not wrong, but it sounds either emphatic or unnatural: Yo hablo español means "I (as opposed to someone else) speak Spanish," with stress on the yo. As a default, leave the pronoun out.
Negation: no goes right before the verb
To make a sentence negative, put no immediately before the verb. Nothing else changes.
| Affirmative | Negative |
|---|---|
| Hablo inglés. | No hablo inglés. |
| Marta come carne. | Marta no come carne. |
| Tenemos tiempo. | No tenemos tiempo. |
No tengo hambre, gracias.
I'm not hungry, thanks.
Mi padre no fuma.
My father doesn't smoke.
No vivimos en Barcelona; vivimos en Valencia.
We don't live in Barcelona; we live in Valencia.
Spanish has no equivalent of "do/does" in negative sentences. You do not say no hago hablar — you just put no in front of the main verb. That is the whole rule.
Yes/no questions: same order, different intonation
To turn a statement into a yes/no question, the simplest thing you can do is keep the word order the same and use rising intonation (plus inverted question marks in writing).
| Statement | Question |
|---|---|
| Hablas español. | ¿Hablas español? |
| Marta tiene coche. | ¿Marta tiene coche? |
| Vivís en Madrid. | ¿Vivís en Madrid? |
¿Quieres venir al cine esta tarde?
Do you want to come to the cinema this afternoon?
¿Tu hermano trabaja en Madrid?
Does your brother work in Madrid?
Spanish does not have an equivalent of English "do/does" for questions either. You do not invent an auxiliary; you simply raise your voice (in speech) or add the inverted question mark (in writing).
It is also natural to put the subject after the verb in a question: ¿Habla tu hermano español? — "Does your brother speak Spanish?" This is covered in more detail in the word-order flexibility page; at A1 level, the simpler subject-first version is always acceptable.
Object pronouns: before the conjugated verb
When the object is a pronoun (lo, la, los, las, me, te, nos, os, le, les), it does not go where you'd put a noun. It hops in front of the conjugated verb:
| With a noun object | With a pronoun object |
|---|---|
| Veo a Marta. | La veo. |
| Como una manzana. | La como. |
| Conozco a Pablo. | Lo conozco. |
| No quiero el libro. | No lo quiero. |
¿Conoces a mi hermana? — Sí, la conozco.
Do you know my sister? — Yes, I know her.
Quiero el café solo, sin azúcar. — Vale, te lo traigo.
I want my coffee black, no sugar. — OK, I'll bring it to you.
In the second example, te lo sits in front of traigo as a single block: indirect object pronoun (te) before direct object pronoun (lo), both before the verb. This is the pattern: pronouns cluster in front of the conjugated verb in the standard order.
Negation wraps around the pronoun-plus-verb cluster — the no still comes first:
No lo conozco.
I don't know him.
No la veo desde el verano pasado.
I haven't seen her since last summer.
Quick summary
| Sentence type | Pattern | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Statement | (Subject) + Verb + Object | Marta come pan. |
| Negation | (Subject) + no + Verb + Object | Marta no come pan. |
| Yes/no question | ¿(Subject) + Verb + Object? | ¿Marta come pan? |
| Pronoun object | (Subject) + Pronoun + Verb | Marta lo come. |
| Negation + pronoun | (Subject) + no + Pronoun + Verb | Marta no lo come. |
Common Mistakes
❌ Yo hablo español, yo vivo en Madrid y yo trabajo en una oficina.
Unnatural — Spanish drops subject pronouns by default. Repeated 'yo' sounds emphatic or non-native.
✅ Hablo español, vivo en Madrid y trabajo en una oficina.
I speak Spanish, I live in Madrid and I work in an office.
❌ Hago no hablar inglés.
Incorrect — Spanish has no 'do/does' auxiliary. Just put 'no' before the main verb.
✅ No hablo inglés.
I don't speak English.
❌ ¿Hablas español? (with only one question mark)
Spanish writing requires both an opening '¿' and a closing '?'. Forgetting the opener is the most common written-Spanish error for English speakers.
✅ ¿Hablas español?
Do you speak Spanish?
❌ Veo lo en el parque todos los días.
Incorrect — object pronouns go before the conjugated verb, not after. 'Lo veo', not 'veo lo'.
✅ Lo veo en el parque todos los días.
I see him in the park every day.
❌ Marta no come no carne.
Incorrect — Spanish uses a single 'no' before the verb. (Double-negative constructions with 'nunca', 'nadie', 'nada' do exist, but they involve different words, not two 'no's.)
✅ Marta no come carne.
Marta doesn't eat meat.
Key takeaways
- The default Spanish sentence is Subject + Verb + Object, just like English.
- Drop the subject pronoun — the verb ending already tells you who is doing it.
- For negation, put no right before the verb. No auxiliary needed.
- For yes/no questions, keep the same word order and use rising intonation; in writing, add ¿ and ?.
- Object pronouns hop in front of the conjugated verb: la veo, lo conozco, te lo traigo.
Now practice Spanish
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Spanish→Related Topics
- Flexibilidad del orden de palabrasB1 — How and why Spanish reorders its sentences — VSO, OSV, OVS, object fronting with clitic doubling, and the role of focus and information structure.
- Posición del sujeto: antes o después del verboB1 — Spanish word order is freer than English: subjects can sit before or after the verb. When each order is used — declaratives, wh-questions, unaccusatives, narrative inversion — and the information-structure logic behind the choices.
- Omisión de pronombres: el español pro-dropA1 — Why Spanish normally drops subject pronouns — and why English speakers must actively unlearn the habit of putting them in.
- Posición del complemento directoA2 — Where direct object pronouns sit in the Spanish sentence — before a conjugated verb, attached to infinitives, gerunds, and affirmative imperatives — with the obligatory written accent that often follows.
- Concordancia sujeto-verboA1 — How Spanish verbs agree with their subjects in person and number — and why usted and ustedes take third-person endings despite meaning 'you'.