Placement of Ahora and Hoy

Question

I am using Rosetta Stone to learn Spanish and I have seen the words hoy and ahora at the beginning and end of sentences. I'm confused as to where to place these words in a sentence. Are there any rules that would dictate where to place them or is it similar to English where you can say "Today its windy" or "Its windy today" and convey the same basic meaning?

Here are some example sentences from Rosetta Stone that show them placed in both positions:

Hace mucho viento hoy. / Hoy hace viento en el parque.

and

Ella está empacando ahora. / ¿Puede volar? Ahora no puede volar, pero podrá en dos semanas.

Welcome to SpanishDict. Please add your language proficiency to your profile. - rac1, Dec 16, 2015

Answer 1

From my (non-native) intuition, both placements seem fine. But there is an emphasis change.

"Hoy voy a la escuela" puts more emphasis on "hoy" (I think in general Spanish puts emphasis on the beginning of the sentence). Whereas "Voy a la escuela hoy" puts more emphasis on the fact that you're actually going.

So if someone says "When are you going to school?", you'd answer "Hoy voy a la escuela". But if someone asks "What are you doing today?", you'd answer "Voy a la escuela hoy"

You get this kind of feel in English too. Compare "She's packing her back right now" vs. "Right now she's packing her back". There's a subtle shift in emphasis that is identical to what's going on.

Great answer , and very understandable, I hope that the newbie is as appreciative . - ray76, Dec 17, 2015

Thanks so much for your answer! Totally makes sense! - 00353cbe, Dec 17, 2015

---Ray, I work a full time job and do not have time to constantly monitor the board. Please give people a chance to respond before implying that we aren't grateful for the help. - 00353cbe, Dec 17, 2015