When and where to put the verb

Question

So in Spanish one thing is confusing me and messing me up very much. Let's take the sentance " “Una mañana salió el joven de la casa de su padre” One morning left the youth the house of his father Things like this confuse me , why not " Una mañana el joven salió la casa de su padre " ?!

I see most sentences have very different structure and I don't get why this isn't . Does anyone know why this is?

To my knowledge, the second word order also works, Spanish is more flexible in word order than English, and the difference between the two is what is being emphasized. :) - bosquederoble, Nov 8, 2015

But as a non-native I hesitate in stating what that difference is, so I will leave it to someone else. :) - bosquederoble, Nov 8, 2015

As Bosque has said. Spanish has a more flexible word order. Your second sentence is also correct. - Daniela2041, Nov 9, 2015

I read this questions as "Why not do it as in English?" And the answer is: Because Spanish is not English. - jtaniel, Nov 9, 2015

Answer 1

I agree with what the friends said, this question reminds me with novels in English that have dialogues, the phrases: (said s/he),(s/he said) could be used interchangably after one of the characters says something. Hope this helps a bit!

Answer 2

subject - verb - rest of the sentence

verb- subject -rest of the sentence

verb - other part of sentence -subject.

All three are acceptable depending on what you want to put the emphasis on in your particular situation.

Answer 3

Because Spanish gives you this flexibility, use it. When you are a beginner and until you have enough exposure to native speakers, form your sentence based on English grammar rules when you can. You will sound like a beginner but so what? This is all about learning to communicate.