Personal Pronouns — Subject Pronouns

Personal Pronouns — Subject Pronouns

Table of Subject Pronouns

The personal pronouns in Spanish, when used as the subject of the verb, are as follows:

	singular	plural
1st person	yo - I	nosotros - we (mas.1 and fem.2) nosotras - we (fem. only)
2nd person	tú/vos * - you (familiar)	vosotros * - you (familiar mas. fem. - only in Spain) vosotras * -you (familiar fem. only - only in Spain)
3rd person	él - he ella - she usted 3 - you (formal)	ellos (they - mas. and fem.) ellas (they - fem. only) ustedes 3 - you (formal - - only in Latin America)

¹masculine
²feminine
³ In the subject pronoun chart, usted and ustedes are tricky. Even though they both mean you (singular and plural); and you is a second-person pronoun in English, but these two “respectful” pronouns are treated as third-person pronouns in Spanish for conjugation (and, thus, are listed with the third-person pronouns).

In English, you can refer to one person or to more than one person. But Latin Americans generally use ustedes for the plural of tú, vos and usted. In Spain, use vosotros for the plural of both tú and usted (vos is not used in Spain).

However, some people don't bother to learn the vosotros pronoun because ustedes can be used as the plural form of you for any situation.

NOTE #1:

a) Since the ending of the verb in Spanish generally indicates the number and person of the subject, subject pronouns are used less often in Spanish than in English.

Hablamos siempre en inglés.
We always speak in English.

Vinieron juntos a la fiesta.
They came together to the party.

b) On the other hand, the subject pronouns are naturally used whenever it is necessary to indicate the subject clearly or to give emphasis to the subject.

Usted habla español bien.
You speak Spanish well.

Él es rico pero ella es pobre.
He is rich but she is poor.

* NOTE #2: tú, vos, usted, vosotros and ustedes

First, tú, vos, usted, vosotros and ustedes all mean you . The confusion lies in when to use them.

[tú] The pronoun tú is used only in familiar conversation, with close friends or with members of one's family.
[vos] The pronoun vos is used in some regions of Latin America in the same way that tú is used.
[usted] The pronoun usted is the formal version and is used to show respect, usually when talking to someone who’s older or whom you don’t know very well. 
[vosotros] Outside of Spain, the plural vosotros has very limited use in present day Spanish, and means all you.
[ustedes] The pronoun ustedes is now generally used in vosotros place outside of Spain, and means all you.

The following is going to help you understand vos that some regions of the Spanish-speaking world have a third category. Generally speaking vos indicates an even closer relationship than tú:

Second-person singular, informal: vos
Second-person singular, semi-formal: tú
Second-person singular, formal: usted

NOTE #3. VOSEO:

Voseo is the use of the pronoun vos and vosotros:

Vos in place of tú in combination with a verb conjugated in the second-person singular.
Vosotros in place of ustedes in combination with a verb conjugated in the second-person plural.

This means:
Vos is the second-person singular pronoun as tú and usted.
Vosotros is the second-person plural pronoun as ustedes.

These are two different kinds of voseo –one in Spain and one in Latin America-.
Vos is used in some regions of Latin American only (Spain doesn’t use vos).
Vosotros is used in Spain only (Latin America doesn’t use vosotros).

The conjugation of vos and tú are different as well as the conjugation of vosotros and ustedes even though they are second-person pronouns.

Examples of second-person singular pronouns conjugated:

Javier:
[vos] Mirá Marta, este es mi padre.
[tú] Mira Marta, este es mi padre.
[usted] Mire Marta, este es mi padre.
Look Marta, this is my father.

Marta:
[vos] Vos sos idéntico. Vos tenés su misma cara.
[tú] Tú eres idéntico. Tú tienes su misma cara.
[usted] Usted es idéntico. Usted tiene su misma cara.
You are identical. You have his same face.

It’s important to mention that two types of voseo are distinguished:

1. The reverential voseo (archaic and disused): consisting of the use of the pronoun vos to address reverentially to the second grammatical person —both singular and plural— implying the verbal conjugation of second-person plural.

In other words, you won't need it and so don't have to worry about it unless you plan on talking to the King in person or read a very old book.

2. The American dialect voseo: consisting of the use of the pronoun vos but it is not reverential, but rather denotes familiarity with the interlocutor in the regions in which it is practiced.

Vos is conjugated differently. It works like vosotros but removes the last i, unless it's a third-conjugation verb (ended in -ir in infinitive). Review the chart below.

Examples of the pronoun vos conjugated as reverential voseo¹and as American dialect voseo ²:

¹ Lo que vos digáis.
² Lo que vos digas .
Whatever you say.

¹ Vos sois de allá.
² Vos sos de allá.
You are from there.

¹ Vos os quedáis con vuestra familia
² Vos te quedas con tu familia.
You stay with your family.

In the last two sentences os and te are Reflexive Pronouns of the subject pronoun vos; vuestra and tu are Possessive Adjectives of the subject pronoun vos.

There is a grammatical difference between reverential voseo and American dialect voseo, where reverential forms also extend agreement to Reflexive and Possessive pronouns, compared to what happens in all variants of American dialect voseo where the Reflexive and Possessive pronouns use agreement with the pronoun tú.

Examples:

¹Me habían informado de muchas cosas sobre vos y de vuestro comportamiento.
²Me habían informado de muchas cosas sobre vos y de tu comportamiento.