Modern Spanish Grammar: A Practical Guide

8 Personal pronouns

^34 (p. 204)

Spanish distinguishes three persons in both singular and plural: the first person

singular (‘I’, ‘me’), the first person plural (‘we’, ‘us’), the second person singular

(‘you’ (only one person)), the second person plural (‘you’ (more than one person)),

the third person singular (‘he’, ‘him’; ‘she’, ‘her’, ‘it’) and the third person plural

(‘they’, ‘them’).

Most complicated for English speakers is the second person. Not only does Spanish

distinguish singular and plural here, but there is also a distinction between polite and

familiar forms of the second person which varies considerably between Spain and

Latin America. In Spain, tú is extremely common, and tends to be used even between

relative strangers unless there is some reason for marking respect. It is not at all

unusual to be addressed as tú by a shop assistant or a bank clerk if you are the same

age or younger than they are, and tú is often used in TV interviews in much the

same way as first names are used in the English-speaking world. However, such

prodigality in the use of the familiar form is not found in some parts of Latin

America. You should therefore try and develop a sensitivity to how and when tú

or vos are used here.

8.1 Subject pronouns

8.1.1 The Peninsular system

8.1.2 Latin-American systems

These are the same as the Peninsular system except in the second person. There are two

different systems:

(a) The voseo system (used in many different areas, but particularly in the Río de la

Plata area, i.e. Argentina and Uruguay):

Singular Plural

1st person yo nosotros/-as

2nd person familiar tú vosotros/-as

2nd person polite usted ustedes

3rd person él/ella ellos/ellas