Verb/subject placement

[wafflestomp]

Hey,

So i have seen a lot of sentences like this lately where the verb comes befor the subject

Ten cuidado, viene un coche

And I know that for certain sentences like "what did he say" it's always "¿Qué dijo él?" but I don't know why.

Is there a specific rule for this or what?

[Rusty]

It doesn't matter much what order is used. The only 'difference' I hear is an emphasis shift. The meaning doesn't change.

Look here (http://webspace.qmul.ac.uk/cjpountain/sp3/orden.htm). It's in Spanish.

[Cloudgazer]

¡Gracias, Rusty! Es un buenísimo recurso.

[wafflestomp]

It doesn't matter much what order is used. The only 'difference' I hear is an emphasis shift. The meaning doesn't change.

Look here (http://webspace.qmul.ac.uk/cjpountain/sp3/orden.htm). It's in Spanish.
Thanks for the link. A question the link can't answer, is one way or the other more natural for some sayings? Like the dijo expressions?

[Rusty]

It seems much more natural to ask, "¿Qué dijo él?"
But, when you're not using the interrogative, it's more natural to say, "Él dijo."

That said, I often reverse subject and verb when using decir with a noun (instead of a pronoun). I learned to say it that way in Central America. The internet tends to agree with me.
'Dijo el profesor que' gets a lot more hits than 'el profesor dijo que'.