Subject Pronouns in Spanish. #1

First things first…

Subject pronouns are used to identify the subject of a verb. Crazy, eh? The subject is the person or thing that carries out the action.

Strangely, these are some of the pronouns you’ll see least in Spanish, as their use is optional in many situations (We’ll explain more about that below).

But, before we go into more detail, let’s start off by making sure we’re all on the same page!

English subject pronouns

In English, the subject pronouns are

I, You, He, She, It, We, You, They

Spanish subject pronouns

In Spanish, the subject pronouns are a bit more complicated:

More confusing than you were expecting? Fear not! All will be explained, below…

Differences between English and Spanish subject pronouns

As you’ll have already noticed, there are some major differences with English, which we’ll take a look at one by one.

1. Tú v Usted

Spanish has two different forms for ‘you’. ‘Tú’ is informal, while ‘usted’ is formal. At least, that’s the theory.
Each verb also has a different form for Usted and Tú. Here’s an example with the verb ‘hablar’:

• ¿Tú hablas español?
  Do you speak Spanish? (informal)
• ¿Usted habla español?
  Do you speak Spanish? (formal)

Our two singular subject pronouns (tú and usted) also have corresponding plural pronouns:

tú -> vosotros/vosotras

usted -> ustedes

You shouldn’t have too many problems remembering the plural of ‘usted’, but pay attention to the pronunciation! Notice how the intonation changes?

We explain more about these separate forms in our classes on Spanish tenses. Check out the class on the simple present for a simple overview.

When to use ‘tú’ ?

We said earlier that ‘usted’ is used for formal situations. However, this was only half true. Well, three quarters…

Spain y Latin America

In Latin America ‘usted’ is used far, far more frequently than tú. In fact, it’s the default form of ‘you’ (except in Argentina and Uruguay). And you won’t hear ‘vosotros’ at all; it’s all ‘ustedes’.

That’s not the case in Spain, where both forms are used frequently.  If you live in Spain, deciding between ‘tú’ and ‘usted’ and then remembering which form of the verb to use can be a big pain in the butt a bit difficult at first. But we all eventually get the hang of it. Honest!

Tu & Tú

Don’t get confused between ‘tú‘ (with accent) and ‘tu‘ (without). The latter is a possessive pronoun which corresponds to ‘your’ in English.

• tu coche – your car
• tu mama – your mother

2. No single word for ‘it’

Personally, I still find it irritating that there’s no exact word for ‘it’. You have to remember what gender every object is and use ‘él’ or ‘ella’, as appropriate.

So, if we are talking about a feminine thing, for example ‘la iglesia’ (the church) we might say:

• Ella está en el centro del pueblo.
  It’s in the centre of the village.

For a male thing, for example ‘el coche’ (the car) we use the pronoun ‘él’:

• Él está en el garaje.
  It’s in the garage.

In practice, however, these type of sentences are rarely used and sound odd to native speakers in many contexts.  This is because you don’t actually need to use subject pronouns in Spanish.  I repeat: You don’t need to include subject pronouns in Spanish sentences and questions. We reveal more about this curious point and explain why it’s a blessing in disguise in the second part of this class…

The last two major differences between English and Spanish subject pronouns

More grammar classes

Don’t forget that we have a whole section dedicated to Spanish grammar. No, don’t groan, you’ll love it!