Object-verb-subject vs Subject-verb-object

Question

Hola,In a Spanish show I've been watching, I often see the Object verb subject construction.  What I would like to know is how prevalent this construction is in everyday Spanish.  Are there situations where it is more commonly used?Example. Nos gustaría que sus cosas las tuvieran los niños. Nos gustaría que los niños las tuvieran sus cosas.*Sus cosas = Las cosas de sus hijas

Accepted Answer

Hola Jamie,
yes, we often do this swapping, but if we do, then we need the presence of the direct object pronoun, as you can see in:
...que sus cosas las tuvieran los niños. 
It would be incorrect to drop it:
...que sus cosas tuvieran los niños. 
Other examples could be:

Miguel, el café me lo pones muy calentito, por favor.
La casa la compré yo con ayuda de mis padres.
El descuento se lo hacemos al final, señora.

I hope it helps.
Saludos
Inma

Answer

What if the object and the subject share the same gender and number?

Una estudiante la tiene la clase.
La clase la tiene una estudiante.

Does this become ambiguous? (Sorry if that example doesn't make sense in Spanish!)

Answer

Hola,
if the subject introduces the sentence, then we can't add the direct object pronoun; it is only when the object is the first element in the sentence:

Una estudiante tiene la clase. (correct) 
Una estudiante la tiene la clase. (incorrect)
La clase la tiene una estudiante (correct)

In the last sentence with both "la" there is no ambiguity because the first "la" is clearly the article for clase (the) and the other "la" in front of the verb can't have any other function but a pronoun referring to an object. (what does she have? the class =la)
Inma