Que and verb placement

Question

Does que have to go in front of certain verbs, like están van que tienen sopa for example. Could you just say están van tienen sopa?

Gracias en avance.

The spanish sentence is probably wrong, but hey, I tried haha - trqkkr, Feb 17, 2013

Answer 1

Does que have to go in front of certain verbs, like están van que tienen sopa for example. Could you just say están van tienen sopa?

Not sure what you're trying to say here...can you write it in English?

Generally, "Qué" in a question would go at the beginning of a sentence. Can you give me some examples in English what you want to say and I can tell you if "Qué" can be placed in another location?

I think this is covered in your other thread "Differnt ways to ask questions." The verb would usually be "ser" instead of "estar." - kirk1, Feb 17, 2013

I was trying to say "they are going to have soup". Basically I'm wondering if there is some trick to remember when wue should be placed. Is it always placed in front of verbs or after verbs? Can you contruct sentences with verbs without using que? - trqkkr, Feb 17, 2013

wue is que*, my bad. tambien, gracias por adelantado - trqkkr, Feb 17, 2013

Answer 2

Learning the ins and outs of languages can be rather fun. In this case you may want to do a google search on "relative pronouns in Spanish."

Explaining the most common use of "que" requires a bit of boring build up. So bear with me.

In every complete (independent) sentence there is at least one clause comprised of one subject and one predicate (which requires at least one verb). Which basically means that in every sentence someone/something has to do/be something.

Every sentence must have one independent clause. To these independent clauses "dependent" clauses can be added, and this addition requires a relative pronoun. Que is one such pronoun.

Edit: *** Just to be clear, the point was, "que" generally goes between one clause and another. The exceptions are things like "que tengas un buen dia" where a previous clause is omitted but assumed. ***

No me dijiste que ibas a Guatemala.

Que is used here to combine one clause with the other.

In these instances after "que" you conjugate the first new verb. Note that dijiste and ibas refer to the same subject, and are both conjugated. A sentence without a relative pronoun will have only one conjugated verb.

You may see people omit que, and I think it is considered an error to do so, and conjugate things all willy nilly, but, hey, what can you do? Never the less que is implied in those cases.

There are cases where you do not conjugate the verb after que, however, such as tener que, and hay que.

Answer 3

I was trying to say "they are going to have soup". Basically I'm wondering if there is some trick to remember when "que" should be placed.

In this sentence structure "que" is not used. It would be:

(Ellos) van a tener / comer / tomar sopa.

"Que " would be used if you said, ie: "They must / have to eat soup".

(Ellos) tienen que comer / tomar sopa."