In Spanish, like many languages, there are personal pronouns which are used to talk to or about people without always repeating their names.
pronombres personales
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| primera persona |  yo |
nosotros / nosotras |
| segunda persona | tú |
vosotros / vosotras |
| tercera persona | él / ella / usted |
ellos / ellas / ustedes |
In English, we only have gender distinction in third person singular (“he” and “she”) but, as you can see, Spanish has this distinction in the third person singular and in all the plural persons. The feminine forms of the plural pronouns (nosotras, vosotras, ellas) are only used if everyone encompassed by the pronoun is female. Even if there is just one male in a group of twenty women, the pronouns will be in the masculine form!
Tú vs. usted
In Spanish there are different ways to address the person with whom you are speaking. In addition to tú, usted is also a personal pronoun that means “you” (singular). When you are talking to someone, you will have to choose between tú or usted; this decision is based on your relationship with the other person.
The general rule is that tú is the familiar form, which is used with peers, friends, family, and children. Usted is the formal form, which is used with a person in a position of authority relative to you (such as a professor, a boss), elders, someone with whom you are not well acquainted, or a person with whom you would like to maintain a more formal or distant relationship. It is important to note that the verb form is not the same for tú and usted; usted uses the same verb form as él and ella. While this is the general guideline, usage of tú and usted can vary greatly from country to country. For this reason, it is important to be an active listener when you are traveling or talking to native speakers to get a sense of how they use familiar and formal forms, and in what contexts.
The plural form of “you” also has a familiar and formal distinction. The familiar form is vosotros/vosotras and the formal form is ustedes. As in the singular, the verb forms used for vosotros/vosotras and ustedes are different; the verb form used with ustedes coincides with that used for ellos/ellas. In Latin America, the ustedes form is utilized for both the familiar and formal contexts. In other words, the distinction between familiar and formal is not practiced in everyday speech for the 2nd person plural. However, in Spain, the vosotros/vosotras is widely used.
Practice the vocabulary from this lesson using the Quizlet flashcards below. You can select “Choose a Study Mode” in the lower right corner to study the terms in a variety of ways.
