Topic
What are we going to say something about?
Meaning
A topic is the starting point of a message: who or what we are going to say something about. It may already be under discussion, or the speaker may choose it now. Languages can mark it with word order, pauses, or special words, but some have no separate topic marker. Topic sets the frame; Focus and emphasis highlights the main answer, new point, or correction.
How to spot it
Look for the person, thing, or setting that provides the starting point for the information added by the rest of the message.
In your native language
In English, the subject often provides the topic, but a time or place phrase can also set the frame. As for explicitly introduces or returns to a topic. Ordinary topic choices often depend on context rather than a special marker.
This room gets very cold in winter.
In a conversation about the room, the subject provides the topic and the rest adds information about it.
As for the tickets, I'll buy them tomorrow.
As for explicitly introduces or returns to the tickets as the topic.
On Saturdays, we have breakfast late.
The opening phrase sets a time frame for the rest of the sentence.
In your learning language
Spanish often places the topic, the person or thing used as the message's starting point, at the beginning. An object, the person or thing the verb acts on, placed first as an ordinary topic is normally repeated by a short pronoun such as lo or la next to the verb. Phrases such as en cuanto a can introduce or change a topic, while subject topics do not need a repeating pronoun.
Esta chaqueta, la compré en rebajas.
I bought this jacket on sale.
La refers back to esta chaqueta in its initial topic position.
A Pablo, lo veo todos los días.
I see Pablo every day.
A marks Pablo as a person who is the object, and lo repeats that object.
En cuanto al viaje, salimos el viernes.
As for the trip, we're leaving on Friday.
Learners whose language moves an object to the front without repeating it may omit lo or la in a topic sentence. A topic at the beginning and a strongly emphasized correction at the beginning can follow different patterns, so front position alone is not enough to choose the form.