Sentence formation

Hi

I am having terrible trouble trying to understand why, the following sentences are in these orders (this is in Spanish, Mexican, level 4, section 4), I am hoping somebody can shed some light on this for me in order that I may understand:

The following sentences, the time/date/day is at the end of the sentence in english but at the beginning in spanish

ayer ayudé a mi padre en la cocina - I helped my father in the kitchen yesterday

la última vez tomamos un taxi - we took a taxi last time

el año pasado te hicieron un gran pastel - they made a big cake for you last year

Now I am all good about this, no problem, that is until I then see the following sentences, where this does not apply, ie the times/years etc are now at the ends of the sentences:

lo conociste en el club hace dos semanas - you met him in the club two weeks ago

vinimos a este país hace muchos años - we came to this country many years ago

mi abuelo siempre iba a correr por la mañana - my grandpa always went for a run in the morning

When forming the sentence, how would I know whether to put the date/year/day etc at the beginning or end of the sentence, or, does it not matter?

I am gathering it doesn’t actually matter where in the sentence it is placed?

Spanish word order is not as strict as in English. See this article:

https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Spanish/Word_Order

In most of the cases mentioned above you could put date either in the beginning or in the end of a sentence, depending on what are you trying to say/emphasize.

vinimos a este país hace muchos años = hace muchos años vinimos a este país

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Ahhh many thanks, it was really confusing me lol