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Sentence length in Spanish

Sunday, 20th September 2020 ◆ Time line (8) ◆ Comments (3) Linguistics  

Although I have read a couple French novels as part of an educational requirement, I had never read a foreign-language novel for pleasure until now. I have just finished reading "El Príncipe de la Niebla", a small teenage fiction novel by esteemed Spanish writer Carlos Ruis Zafón. His first novel, in fact.

There were plenty of words I didn't know, but they did not impede my ability to follow the plot. And for sure, I learnt a lot of vocabulary along the way. It's an exciting milestone in my Spanish-learning journey, and I am looking forward to enjoying more Spanish books in the future.

Whilst reading this book, I found myself thinking that the sentences were far longer than what I would have expected in an English-language novel. This is a thought which had already been growing based on other snippets of Spanish fiction I had encountered. However, am I right? Could this just be a stylistic choice of the author, or is there a real difference in average sentence length in Spanish compared to English?

Here's an example lengthy sentence from the first page of the book:

A mediados de junio, el día en que Max cumplió los trece años, su padre, relojero e inventor a ratos perdidos, reunió a la familia en el salón y les anunció que aquél era el último día que pasarían en la que había sido su casa en los últimos diez años.
– El Príncipe de la Niebla, Chapter 1, Carlos Ruis Zafón

Let's look at some original texts. It's difficult to find the texts of novels, so instead I took three recent articles from different authors from an English and Spanish newspaper. A more exhaustive approach would be interesting, across more newspapers and languages, but I don't have the patience (yet).

Newspaper	Article title	No. words	No. sentences	Avg words per sentence
El Diario	Madrid contará con un despliegue de 200 policías locales en 60 zonas para hacer cumplir las medidas sanitarias →	393	9	43.7
El Diario	Reino Unido considera cerrar los pubs, vuelta al cole en Italia y segundo confinamiento en Israel →	1253	42	29.8
El Diario	Un juez ordena el ingreso en prisión de la directora de una residencia de Valladolid que robó en casa de un interno recién fallecido →	1019	19	53.6
The Guardian	Thai protesters call for reform of monarchy and general strike →	883	31	28.5
The Guardian	Another day not at the office: will working from home be 2020's most radical change? →	2854	147	19.4
The Guardian	Royal Academy's cruel dilemma: sell a Michelangelo or lose 150 jobs →	851	32	26.6

That seems fairly conclusive! Yes, Spanish sentences do tend to be longer. Even the titles of the articles appear to be more consise in English. I think it's interesting that the makeup of a language is much more than its grammar and vocabulary; there are also different practices and styles.

What other non-grammar non-vocabulary differences are there between Spanish and English, I wonder? Or indeed, between other languages...