To invert or not to invert

[Caballero]

In Standard Spanish, when asking a question and you're including a pronoun, does it invert like in English?

¿Habla él ruso? - Does he speak Russian?
or should it be:
¿Él habla ruso?

[aleCcowaN]

It's the same to me. "¿Habla él ruso?" looks also a bit more formal. Also "¿Él lo habla? ¿Lo habla él?".

One of the reasons Spanish has an essential "¿" sign is that it's not clear by grammar when something is a question or not, in the way it is with English "I can! I think. May I?"

[Luna Azul]

Originally Posted by Caballero

In Standard Spanish, when asking a question and you're including a pronoun, does it invert like in English?

¿Habla él ruso? - Does he speak Russian?
or should it be:
¿Él habla ruso?

Spanish is very flexible in sentence construction.

¿Él habla ruso? = ¿habla ruso él? = ¿habla él ruso?

Therefore the two question marks in the written language.

In the spoken language only the intonation will let you know if it's either a question or a statement.