Word order

Spanish is SVO like English — but because the verb ending already names the subject, the subject is free to move or vanish. Think of word order as flexible around a fixed verb + clitic core.

The default

Juan compró un coche. — S V O, just like English.

But the subject is usually simply dropped: Compró un coche. And it can follow the verb with no change in meaning, only in flavor:

Me gusta el café is literally "to-me pleases the coffee" — the thing liked is the grammatical subject and sits after the verb. Fighting this pattern is fighting the language.

Object pronouns hug the verb

Clitics go immediately before a conjugated verb, and nothing squeezes between:

Lo veo. · No te lo doy. · ¿Me oyes?

They attach to the end of three forms:

Adjectives after the noun

The default is noun then adjective — the mirror of English:

un coche rojo · una pregunta difícil · el vino blanco

(Quantity words go before: muchos libros, dos coches. The meaning-shifting exceptions — gran hombre vs hombre grande — live in the Adjectives chapter.)

Questions and emphasis move things

• After a question word, verb before subject: ¿Dónde vive María?
• Fronting an object for emphasis forces a clitic copy: El libro ya lo he leído. ("The book, I've already read it.")

What does NOT move

• no and negative words stay before the verb: No lo sé.
• Clitic order is fixed: se → indirect → direct. Se me olvidó.
• Adverbs sit near the verb, not between subject and verb the English way: Siempre llego tarde or Llego siempre tarde — but not Yo siempre soy… patterns with auxiliaries split: He comido siempre aquí, never He siempre comido.

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