Pronoun sentence structure

Question

In English langugae they teach us that a sentence (normally) begins with a noun.

Tengo el pastel = I have the cake Lo tengo = I have it.

My question is: Why is "It" the noun in the 2nd sentence.

im going to ask this again because i meant subject where i mean noun - craftinine, Feb 2, 2012

the more i think about this question the more i want it deleted - craftinine, Feb 2, 2012

Then please edit your question, and an admin will delete it - SonrisaDelSol, Feb 2, 2012

I am not sure why you want it deleted. Did you figure it out by yourself? Anyway, it's okay. It's just a forum. I hope you feel free to ask questions here. - webdunce, Feb 2, 2012

And, welcome to the forum. :) - webdunce, Feb 2, 2012

Answer 1

I'm not quite sure what you are asking. The normal word order for a declatory statement in English is SVO (subject, verb object). The subject is normally a noun or pronoun. Spanish, being more flexible with word order than Englsih uses OVS as well as SVO.

e.g. Me gustan las mazanas. (OVS)

Lo tengo. (OVS) Nothing unusual there.

Why is "it" the noun in the 2nd sentence?

"It" isn't the noun (subject) in the 2nd sentence. I (yo) is the subject. Just because Lo begins the sentence does not make it the subject (noun) in Spanish.

Sorry, Q....I tried...really I did. - webdunce, Feb 2, 2012

Answer 2

In English langugae they teach us that a sentence (normally) begins with a noun.

This is a bit of a distortion. The most common word order in English is SVO. However, this refers only to the relative order of the subject, verb and object. It does not mean that the the subject is always the first word in a sentence. It is quite common to begin a sentence with some sort of adverbial phrase e.g. "Whenever I see this, I want to vomit." / "After he returned home, he took a shower." /etc.

Thanks everyone for the answers...even though my question didn't make any sense, yall managed to enlighten me anyway. muchos gracias - craftinine, Feb 2, 2012

Answer 3

Hi Craftinine,

In "Lo tengo," the LO = IT, but it is not the subject (not in either language). LO is the direct object of the sentence.

tengo = I have

lo = it

lo tengo = I have it.

In Spanish, object pronouns come before the verb, but in English they come afterwards. However, direct object nouns generally come after the verb in both languages.

Examples:

I have the paper = Tengo el papel.

I have it = Lo tengo (LO = IT and is used because papel is masculine).

.

I have the cup = Tengo la taza.

I have it. = La tengo. (La = it and is used because taza is feminine.)

Why didn't you post that sooner and save me some time? - 0074b507, Feb 2, 2012