10 Simple Rules to Form Sentences in Spanish

Finding it hard to combine the Spanish words you know into a proper sentence?

The most probable reason is you need to review the fundamentals of Spanish sentence building.

And it's true, it isn't identical to English. But then again, if it were, learning a new language wouldn't be such a distinct and enjoyable experience.

So let's learn how to put those sentences together and begin speaking Spanish.

Why Learn the Basics of Spanish Sentences?

Once you master these fundamental rules, you'll be able to build more complicated sentences. Think of the language as a structure (or a Jenga tower, if you prefer). If the base isn't built correctly, everything will collapse. But with a solid base, you can construct anything you want on top.

And that point about Spanish and English being different... is that accurate? Well, Spanish does share some similarities with English. Its structure isn't so alien that you'll need to completely change your worldview to understand it, but differences do exist.

As you might expect, it's these differences that cause most errors. So pay close attention, because you're about to learn the essential components for your future Spanish communication.

10 Essential Rules for Crafting Simple Spanish Sentences

1. Every Spanish sentence needs a subject and a verb (at the minimum).

To create a standard, positive sentence, you need a subject and a verb, as a bare minimum. Naturally, there will be variations, which we'll address shortly.

For a reminder:

• The subject is the one performing the action. It plays an active part in your sentence or is the main element or topic. A subject could be a person's name, an animal, or a machine, for instance.
• A verb is an action word like comer (to eat), poder (to be able to), beber (to drink) and escuchar (to listen). You’ll also encounter “being verbs” and “infinitive verbs,” but for simplicity, we’ll cover those later.

Subject + verb

Let’s say your subject is Juan (a common Spanish masculine name that corresponds to the English “John”) and your verb is escribir (to write). You can then make the simple sentence:

Juan escribe. (Juan writes.)

Here, it's important to mention that knowing how to conjugate Spanish verbs is essential. This means learning the guidelines and exceptions for applying tenses to each verb.

For example, John escribe, but I escribo. Learning these conjugations takes time, so when you're beginning, try to concentrate on the present tense.

Subject + verb + object

Now, let’s include another element: the object. Simply put, the object is what's being acted upon by the verb. For instance, in our last sentence, you might ask "What is Juan writing?" The answer is the object.

Again, let’s say Juan is writing a letter (carta), which would be the object as shown below:

Juan escribe una carta. (Juan writes a letter.)

Note the article una (a/an), which should match the number of the object (singular) and its gender (feminine). (The masculine form of una would be uno.) Both the number and gender will influence the verb and any adjectives you use. Don't worry: I'll explain these ideas in more detail later.

When a subject can be omitted

To simplify things further, you can often leave out the subject once it's clear who or what is being discussed. So if you said Juan escribe, your next sentence could be Escribe bien (He writes well).

Since Juan is the subject in the first sentence, and the verb in the second sentence indicates the subject is a he/she/it, it's reasonable to assume Juan is still the subject.

You could also use a pronoun to replace the subject by writing Él escribe (He writes). As long as the subject has already been introduced, this is acceptable.

This doesn't go against the rule that Spanish sentences need a subject and a verb. In the last examples, the subject can be omitted because it's understood from the context. So technically, a subject is still present in phrases like Escribe bien and Él escribe—it's just implied rather than stated explicitly.

2. Use the right gender.

Using the correct gender for nouns is crucial in Spanish, as it can alter entire sentences. Consider the potential confusion if you mix up words like pulpo (octopus) and pulpa (pulp).

While writing and building your vocabulary lists, be sure to note the noun's gender next to the word in parentheses. For example:

(una) casa — a house

As a general guideline for gender, nouns ending in o are typically masculine and those ending in a are usually feminine, but there are exceptions. Mastering noun gender can be challenging, but it significantly improves your sentence ability.

On a related note, I find it strange that many instructors delay teaching noun gender until the intermediate level. Some believe you shouldn't emphasize grammar from the start. Instead, you should concentrate on immersion and absorbing words in their natural setting. And don't misunderstand: that method has its merits too!

However, if you wish to start communicating immediately, memorizing a few basic components gives you a good range of expressions to use in speaking and writing right away.

3. Use the right article.

Once you have a good handle on noun genders, using articles will be straightforward.

Here’s a quick table of Spanish articles.

These articles are used much more often than in English, so you'll need to know where and when to use them.

Some tricky cases to note are subjects like la gente (the people) or la familia (the family)—these subjects refer to multiple people but are treated as singular subjects. Note that the article “la” in front of them is also singular. Any verbs linked to these subjects must be conjugated as singular, third person.

Watch this video to see more examples of subjects and matching verbs or adjectives.

4. Adjectives come after nouns in Spanish sentences.

An adjective describes a subject or object. Some examples of adjectives are rojo / roja (red) and alto / alta (tall). You can see some more adjectives in action here.

This is an area where English speakers often make mistakes. Imagine Juan has green eyes and you want to say this in Spanish. You need to write that he has ojos verdes (literally: eyes green) and not verdes ojos.

Placing the adjective after the noun is one of the first rules Spanish learners must learn and its significance cannot be overstated.

This rule applies to other adjective and noun pairings. If Juan has long hair, you’d say he has pelo largo (literally: hair long) and if it’s short, it would be pelo corto (hair short).

Just to make things a bit more complicated, you also need to make your adjectives agree. So if the noun is plural, the adjective must be plural too. For example, since ojos (eyes) is plural, you match it with verdes (green – plural) and not the singular verde. You can learn more about that one in this post.

Note that in some instances, this rule is reversed. Some adjectives change their meaning based on whether they come before or after the noun. But for now, just follow the adjectives-after-nouns rule: you can deal with the exceptions later.

5. Connect subjects with verbs/other parts of speech with “to be” verbs.

In Spanish, there are two verbs that mean “to be”: ser and estar.

There are detailed rules governing when to use one instead of the other. However, learning some of the most basic forms of ser and estar will enable you to construct many more sentences than beginner materials typically allow.

For example, you have es and está (both of which mean “is”) to link your subject/noun and adjective together, like so:

Juan es alto. (Juan is tall.)

Juan está enfadado. (Juan is angry.)

6. Adverbs function in Spanish like they do in English.

Like in English, Spanish adverbs are used to describe verbs.

For example, you have Juan lee rápidamente. (Juan reads quickly). How does Juan read? He reads quickly, which describes the verb “reads.” Good for Juan!

Here’s another example: Juan canta mal. (Juan sings badly). Not so good for Juan.

Spanish adverbs can also be moved around in the sentence like in English. You could say:

Juan escribe lentamente. (Literally: Juan writes slowly)

Lentamente escribe Juan. (Literally: Slowly writes Juan)

Either way, you’d be saying that Juan writes slowly. This may or may not be a good thing, depending on your perspective.

To form most Spanish adverbs, just add “-mente” to the end of the adjective. If the adjective ends in “o” to describe a masculine noun, you need to ensure the letter before the “-mente” is “a” and not “o.”

For example:

• rápido / rápida → rápidamente
• lento / lenta → lentamente
• perfecto / perfecta → perfectamente

If the adjective doesn’t end in o/a, you can simply add “-mente.” For example, difícil (difficult) becomes difícilmente. Not so difícil after all!

The addition of “-mente” in Spanish is similar to adding “-ly” to adjectives in English (“slow” becomes “slowly,” for example).

Unlike Spanish adjectives, Spanish adverbs do not indicate gender. In other words, they remain the same regardless of the gender they refer to.

Of course, there are also a few adverbs that don’t follow the “add -mente” rule. The most common irregular adverbs are:

bueno → bien (good)

malo → mal (bad)

Remember those two and you should have no trouble creating basic sentences with adverbs.

7. To make a Spanish sentence negative, add “no” before the verb.

At some point, unless you're an eternally optimistic person, you'll need to make your sentences negative.

The good news is that, in Spanish, negation is very simple—simpler than in English, actually.

Just add “no” before the verb. That's all.

So Juan escribe (Juan writes) becomes Juan no escribe (Juan doesn’t write).

Why Juan doesn’t write isn’t clear here, but that's the advantage of basics.

You can expand the sentence from your building block and say Juan no escribe porque es un gato (Juan doesn’t write because he’s a cat), or whatever other reason for Juan's lack of Spanish writing ability you like. By the way, we will discuss words like porque (because), which is an example of a Spanish conjunction, later.

Unlike in English, using double negatives is acceptable in Spanish. For example, you could say no me gusta nada, which translates literally to “I don’t like nothing” and is considered grammatically correct in Spanish.

8. Bring them all together with conjunctions.

It's crucial that you know how to link your words and ideas in sentences. To do that, here are the top five conjunctions in Spanish you should know:

• y — and
• pero — but
• también — also
• porque — because
• * pues — well

*Pues: This connector, although used in both Spain and Latin America, is more common in informal Latin American speech.

9. Master your phrasal verbs.

Phrasal verbs are excellent tools for creating simple Spanish sentences. Why?

For one, they have straightforward rules that, when followed, will generate perfect sentences to describe your future actions.

Before we continue, we should clarify what an infinitive verb or infinitivo is. They're somewhat like the English phrase “to + verb.” In the infinitive form, verbs aren't conjugated to specify the subject or time of the action. They all end in -ar, -er or -ir.

For a simple example, you have queremos leer (we want to read), where queremos is the conjugated form of querer (to want) and you add the infinitive verb leer or “to read.”

Now, I’d like to formally introduce you to your new phrasal companions—so called because they're extremely easy to use—Tener que + Infinitivo (have to) and Ir a + Infinitivo (going to).

This will also be excellent conjugation practice for two essential verbs, tener (to have) and ir (to go), as they’re irregular in the first person form of the present tense.

Essentially, your steps are as follows.

1. Conjugate the verb (tener or ir).

*If you’re in Spain, you should use ustedes only in formal settings (use vosotros otherwise). In Latin America, though, ustedes is the only plural pronoun for “you” in use, regardless of formality.

2. Add que for tener and a for ir. Then, add your infinitivo.

Let’s look at three sentence examples of tener que in action. The infinitive verb phrases (i.e., tener + que + infinitive verb) are bolded.

Yo tengo que hacer mi tarea porque mañana tengo clase. (I have to do my homework because I have a class tomorrow.)

Tú tienes que ver esa película, pero vamos juntos porque la quiero ver otra vez. (You have to see that movie, but let’s go together because I want to see it again.)

Si ellos tienen que ir, ella también tiene que ir. (If they have to go, she has to go as well.)

Simple, isn’t it? Try creating a few more on your own. Then review with this quiz.

What about expressing future actions? Well, that’s where phrasal friend number 2 comes in. Again, the infinitive verb phrases (i.e., ir + a + infinitive verb) are bolded.

Ella va a ver la televisión. (She is going to watch television.)

Vamos a comer porque tenemos hambre. (We are going to eat because we are hungry.)

Usted va a poder hacerlo con ayuda. (You will be able to do it with help.)

Keep thinking of a few more using different words and actions. Once you feel ready, take this quiz to review.

10. There are three ways to make questions in Spanish.

Unless your entire conversation is one-sided (perhaps as you’re talking to Juan the cat), you’ll also probably want to ask questions. Again, this is easier in Spanish than in English, which is likely why Spanish speakers often struggle with forming questions in English.

Spanish learners should have much less difficulty. (Yay!) There are a few methods to form Spanish questions:

Switch verb and subject.

The positive sentence Juan cocina (Juan cooks) becomes ¿Cocina Juan? (Does Juan cook?). Don’t forget that, in Spanish, you also need an upside down question mark at the beginning of your question.

Add upside down question marks and rising intonation.

An even simpler way to ask a question is to just put question marks around a statement. So Juan cocina becomes ¿Juan cocina?. This is by far the preferred way to ask questions in both spoken and written Spanish.

But how do we know someone is asking a question when they speak if they're using the same words (with the same word order) as in an affirmative sentence?

The answer is intonation. Raise your pitch at the end of your sentence and your listener will understand you're asking a question. It's another similarity between Spanish and English: spoken questions are indicated by a rising intonation at the end.

Add question tags.

Another easy method to form a question in Spanish is to add a question tag. This is when you state a normal sentence, but add a question word at the end. You know, like in English, right?

Let’s use Juan and his cooking one final time. To make a question from Juan cocina using this method, just add ¿no? or ¿verdad? at the end.

So our question is now Juan cocina, ¿no? or Juan cocina, ¿verdad? This is like saying, “Juan cooks, doesn’t he?”

You got all that, didn’t you?

How to Practice Making Spanish Sentences

You've read about all these rules. Now it's time to determine how to apply them.

Immerse yourself in as much Spanish as possible.

The key to mastering Spanish sentences is to, of course, encounter many of them. A handful of examples isn't enough: the more sentences you see and analyze, the more instinctive the rules will become.

Ideally, you'd have a native Spanish speaker available (like a friend or teacher) who can converse with you regularly in the language. But if that's not possible, the next best approach is to use authentic Spanish content, such as Spanish books, TV series, films and so on.

One multimedia language resource you can use for this purpose is Lingflix, which has a collection of authentic Spanish videos equipped with Spanish and English interactive subtitles. Besides letting you follow along with the spoken phrases, these subtitles also provide translations, grammar information and example sentences. Videos are also followed by quizzes where you have to, for instance, complete sentences with the correct word order.

The Lingflix YouTube channel also analyzes episodes of popular TV shows dubbed in Spanish—like “Friends” and “The Big Bang Theory”—to deliver detailed vocabulary and grammar lessons.

You can see Spanish grammar used naturally plus get tutor explanations in 20ish minute videos.

Write down two new sentences daily.

For example, you can write one in the morning when you wake up and one at night before you go to bed.

Want to create a daily visual reminder? Hang a poster or sheet of paper on the wall to ensure you review daily.

A friend of mine told me that, after creating a wall poster of 10 Spanish sentences, she looked at the poster for five minutes each day. After a week, she remembered eight of the 10 sentences by heart. Not bad!

The trick is to keep doing this every week with a new set of sentences, plus any from the previous week you haven't fully memorized yet.

While you're at it, why not start your Spanish Sentence wall poster today? Here are some useful and common sentences you can begin with.

1. Soy de ______. (I am from _______.)

2. Vivo en ______. (I live in _______.)

3. Soy ______. (I am (a) _______.)

4. Soy estudiante. (I am a student.)

5. Estoy ______. (I am _______.)

6. Estoy bien, gracias. (I am fine, thank you.)

7. Me gusta ______. (I like _______.)

8. No me gusta ______. (I don’t like _______.)

Say them to yourself in the mirror.

Repeat each sentence three times and look at yourself while speaking. Don’t be shy! This helps reinforce the sentence. The visual of yourself helps you ingrain it in your mind and feel extra confident once you use it in a real-world situation.

If something sounds funny, look at your mouth. Are you really forming the sounds carefully with your lips?

Journal all the time.

Keep a Spanish journal and write down two simple sentences daily. Write each one two or three times consecutively to make sure it really sticks.

If you’re feeling really motivated, you can extend this practice session and create a longer journal entry using the sentences in context.

Don’t be afraid to experiment.

Once you’ve mastered the basics, you can begin adding extra elements and having some fun. To use a Jenga analogy, if the tower was constructed well, you don’t need to worry about it collapsing even if you take out and rearrange the blocks (i.e., grammar rules).

Perhaps you want to modify that adjective. You can say el hombre es muy alto (the man is very tall). Or you might want to include additional adjectives like in la chica es alta, delgada y muy bonita (the girl is tall, skinny and very beautiful).

You can even combine some formulas. For example, la chica delgada escribe perfectamente (the skinny girl writes perfectly) which is subject + adjective + verb + adverb.

The more you experiment with using extra words and new vocabulary, the further you'll advance in your Spanish studies.

So there you have it: ten simple rules to assist you in learning Spanish sentences. Now that you've got the fundamentals down, you can move forward and build something a bit more complex. Happy building!