yydolphinx

[yydolphinx]

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[yydolphinx]

[yydolphinx]

[yydolphinx]

I had to write an essay in spanish, and though I got a great grade, I had a lot of grammatical errors. I noticed it's pretty glaringly obvious I was using english sentence structure, "...Badajoz es un muy importante lugar..." vs "Badajoz es un lugar muy importante..." etc and things like that. I'm practicing more, but what's a good rule of thumb in the sentence structure in general for spanish vs english, and how to avoid accidentally writing the structure with english rules? Thank you :)

First, I’d like to say that your sentence isn’t wrong. It’s unusual, but not wrong. Saying es un muy importante lugar sounds like you are being extra emphatic.

When you talk about when adjectives go before or after the noun, it’s a matter of the “determiners”. Determiners are a subset of adjectives

The determiners that (almost) always go first are also adjectives in a way:

definite articles [el/la/los/las]

indefinite articles [un/una/unos/unas]

cardinal numbers [uno, dos, tres…]

ordinal numbers [primer(a), segundo/a, tercer(a)]

possessive pronouns [mi(s), tu(s), su(s)]

algún, alguna

ningún, ninguna

cuál, cuáles / cual, cuales

tal

cuánto/a / cuanto/a

todo/a

cada 

casi

cualquier

tanto/a

mejor [usually]

peor [usually]

algo

poco/a

mucho/a

muy

bastante

varios, varias

Just to name a few. Many of them are determiners related to quantity or relative concepts.

Es muy importante. = It’s very important

Es tan importante. = It’s so important.

Es poco importante. = It’s not very important at all.

Es algo importante. = It’s somewhat important. [or just “it’s something important” where algo is a noun; not used as “somewhat”]

Ordinal numbers are mostly in front, except when you’re talking about royalty names/titles:

el segundo piso = the second floor

Isabel II [Segunda] = Elizabeth II [the Second]

Alfonso X [Décimo] = Alfonso X [the Tenth]

With the average adjective, expect it to be behind the noun almost always:

un gato blanco = a white cat

el reloj roto = the broken clock/watch

mi cita importante = my important date/appointment

Changing that order makes it very significant or poetic, and possibly pretentious when used incorrectly. It emphasizes the adjective so much it becomes a super version of what it was, which in translation comes off using a stronger word choice:

un blanco gato = the pure white cat

el roto reloj = the destroyed clock

mi importante cita = my crucial date/appointment

There are plenty of adjectives where the placement changes the meaning as well, and those are the ones to watch out for.

el viejo amigo = the old friend, the long-time friendel amigo viejo = the friend who is old, the elderly friend

la misma cosa = the same thingla cosa misma = the thing itself

la Antigua Grecia = Ancient Greecela casa antigua = the old housela antigua casa = the former house

la gran ciudad = the great city, the grand cityla ciudad grande = the big city, the large city

buen chico = good boy [behavior or overall]chico bueno = nice boy, kind boy [personality trait]

mal chico = bad boy [behavior or overall]chico malo = mean boy, unkind boy [personality trait]

triste persona = pitiful/miserable/tragic/wretched personpersona triste = sad person

pobre hombre = poor/pitiful manhombre pobre = poor/destitute man

cualquier persona = any personuna persona cualquiera = a normal person, an ordinary person, “any old person”

el nuevo teléfono = the newest phone / the latest phoneel teléfono nuevo = the new phone, the recent phone

pura suerte = pure luck, sheer luckuna persona pura = a pure person

la única cosa = the only thingla persona única = the unique personhija única = only daughter

a simple vista = merely lookingla comida simple = simple cooking

rara vez = rarely [not often]persona rara = strange person [weird]

duras decisiones = hard decision [difficult or painful]piedras duras = hard rocks [hard or tough usually as far as touching]

alta calidad = high quality, best quality, premium qualitymontaña alta = high/tall mountainpersona alta = tall person

And there are others.

In your case you said something to the effect of “THE ABSOLUTE MOST IMPORTANT PLACE” rather than “a very important place”.

Just be careful because if you put all of your adjectives before, you start to sound like a very flowery writer and it comes off as you not knowing the rules, or sounding very full of yourself.

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Here are some podcasts for those of you that learn or speak Spanish.  Many you can find on  iTunes, on Android using Pocket Casts, or on their own websites/RSS feed. Other podcasts: Arabic| French | German | Italian| Russian| Ukrainian| Eurasia

Language Learning

Accelerated Spanish

Coffee Break Spanish

Discover Spanish

Language Transfer: Complete Spanish

Learn Spanish Daily Podcast

Learning Spanish for Beginners 

Light Speed Spanish

Medical Spanish Podcast

Notes in Spanish: Beginner

Notes in Spanish: Intermediate

Notes in Spanish: Advanced

One Minute Spanish

One Minute Latin American Spanish

Real Deal Spanish

Spanish by Choice: Transcripts here.

SpanishPod101

Spanish - SurvivalPhrases

Speak Spanish with Maria Fernandez

Beginner-Advanced Listening

Advanced Spanish with Spanish Obsessed

Español Automático: Includes transcripts.

Españolistos

Hablemos Español (Mexico)

La Casa Rojas: Transcripts can be bought.

Learn Argentinian Spanish

My Spanish Podcasts

News in Slow Spanish (Spain):  Includes transcripts.

News in Slow Spanish (Latin America): Includes transcripts.

Notes in Spanish: Gold: Transcripts can be bought.

Podcast en Spanish

Spanishpodcast: Includes transcripts.

SpanishPodcast.net: Includes transcripts.

Show Time Spanish

Unlimited Spanish: Includes transcripts.

Spanish Only

00 Podcast: Movies

Al Filo de la Realidad: Occult, UFO’s, pseudoscience.

Campamento Krypton: Pop culture.

CienciaEs: Science podcasts

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Economía para la Ciudadanía: Economics.

El Amor Después : Relationships and love.

Engadget: Technology.

Es Salud: Health.

Es una Trampa: Star Wars

Fallo de sistema: Sci-fi, comics, movies.

Gameover: Video games.

Histocast: History

Juego de Tronos : Game of Thrones.

La Papa: Answers to unique questions.

La  Parroquia: Humor.

La Rosa de los Vientos: Mystery

Lo-Fi: Relationships.

Melomania: Classical music.

Memorias de un Tambor: Spanish history.

Nadie sabe nada: Humor.

Negá Todo : X-files

Nunca Ayudes a Nadie: Productivity

Oh My LOL: Humor

Radio Ambulante: Like This American Life

Radioshock: Random interesting topics.

SBS Radio: News

Señaladores: Literature.

Sexopolis: Sex & sexuality.

Siglo 21: Music.

Son y sabor: Music

Terror Y Nada Más: Horror.

Verne y Wells Ciencia Ficción: Sci-fi and stories.

Argentina Podcastera: Several interesting podcasts from Argentina.

iVoox: Several podcasts can be found here.

Radio Nacional: Several podcasts from Colombia.

RTVE: Several podcasts from Spain that you narrow by category.

You can find waaay more podcasts in Spanish simply by going through Spanish radio stations. I’ve seen podcasts for Pokemon, poetry, geology, and beer. You’re bound to find something you like :D