It's not really about syntax. It's about the execution model. Your second example might almost feel normal to someone with a preference for SQL, which is a declarative language.
Declarative languages don't specify (or minimize the specification of) the execution, imperative languages specify the execution. You can look at the verbs used in describing or verbalizing the language. In declarative languages you don't talk about "assigning" as much as you talk about relationships: "x is y", "x is related to y by f(x,y)", "if x is predicate(x) then y is z else y is z'". In imperative languages you do things: "x is assigned y", "for x in y do ...", "if x is predicate(x) then do y is assigned z else do y is assigned z'".
Additionally, statements/expressions in declarative languages can be reordered more freely (the "purer" the declarative language the more true this is), given that it tends towards the relational version. In a constraint based system, for example, you could do these in either order:
x in 1..10
x % 3 == 2
;; => x \in {2, 5, 8}
x collects these constraints and so the order is irrelevant (though practically many declarative languages aren't this pure so the order may matter for various reasons).
Declarative languages don't specify (or minimize the specification of) the execution, imperative languages specify the execution. You can look at the verbs used in describing or verbalizing the language. In declarative languages you don't talk about "assigning" as much as you talk about relationships: "x is y", "x is related to y by f(x,y)", "if x is predicate(x) then y is z else y is z'". In imperative languages you do things: "x is assigned y", "for x in y do ...", "if x is predicate(x) then do y is assigned z else do y is assigned z'".
Additionally, statements/expressions in declarative languages can be reordered more freely (the "purer" the declarative language the more true this is), given that it tends towards the relational version. In a constraint based system, for example, you could do these in either order:
x collects these constraints and so the order is irrelevant (though practically many declarative languages aren't this pure so the order may matter for various reasons).