In universal grammar terms, which language feature differs between Spanish and English?

• A. Spanish allows omitting the subject; English generally requires it
• B. English allows omitting the subject; Spanish requires it
• C. Both always require explicit subjects
• D. Neither language allows subject omission

Answer: (A)

Subject omission is the key idea here. Spanish routinely drops the subject because its verb endings encode person and number, so you can say “hablo” for “I speak” without an explicit subject. English, on the other hand, relies less on verb endings to signal who is performing the action, so in most declarative sentences it needs an explicit subject: “I speak.” An exception in English is the imperative mood, where the subject is often understood but not spoken. Because of this contrast, the feature that differs is whether subject pronouns can be omitted: Spanish generally allows it, English generally does not.