Subject and Verb Placement in Questions

Question

Doing some Spanish lessons, I noticed the different word order in the following questions:

1. "¿El perro nada?" (translation: "Is the dog swimming?")
2. "¿Duerme ella?" (translation: "Is she sleeping?")

I was wondering why one question (¿El perro nada?) has the verb after the subject and the other question (¿Duerme ella?) has the verb before the subject? In other words, why not "¿Nada el perro?" and "¿Ella duerme?". Does the order matter? Is there a grammar lesson I can learn here?

P.S. The only differences I can come up with are that sentence 1 seems to be a transitive use of the verb and sentence 2 seems to be intransitive use; and, sentence 1 has a definite article preceding a noun and sentence 2 is just a lone pronoun. I don´t know if any of this is relevant, just trying to learn. Thank you.

Answer 1

Either word order can be used with any verb in these cases; it´s not a matter of transitive/intransitive verbs, ie: ¡El perro comió toda mi cena! / ¡Comió toda mi cena el perro! The first sentence emphsizes "mi cena" and the second emphasizes "el perro" so nuance is one reason for a particular word order and another reason is simple preference.

And yes, your examples could also be worded just as you have suggested.

Answer 2

I'd have translated the first as "Does the dog swim?". But your example example could be correct based on context. The same for your second example.

From what I know, word order is optional in interrogative sentences. In my experiences, I mostly always see the subject come after the verb, but this can change depending on word flow and how the sentence sounds and also regional differences.

Example: "¿Quieres tú aprender más?",sounds good to me wheras "¿Tú quieres aprender más?" Sounds strange to me and would be used in Cuban Spanish (if I'm not mistake)

As you continue learning and see and hear more Spanish, you'll develop a good ear for what does/doesn't sound right.