BASIC SPANISH: A GRAMMAR AND WORKBOOK

The tendency in Spain at the moment seems to be that the familiar forms (tú and
vosotros) are being used more and more at the expense of Vd. and Vds. This is
particularly true among young people. However, in case of doubt, the recommendation,
especially among adults, is to use Vd. In this case, you will never lose face.

Subject pronouns

We have already seen the various forms of the word ‘you’ in Spanish, so now we can
look at the complete list of subject pronouns.
Traditionally pronouns and verbs are displayed in the three ‘persons’. In the singular,
‘I’ is the ‘first person’, ‘you’ is the second person, and ‘he/she’ is the third person. The
first person plural is ‘we’, the second person plural is ‘you’ (remember that in English
‘you’ can be singular or plural) and the third person plural is ‘they’.
The subject pronouns in Spanish are as follows:
Singular

(^1) yo I
2 tú you (familiar)
3 él he (or ‘it’ when referring to a masc. object)
4 ella she (or ‘it’ when referring to a fem. object)
usted you (formal)
Plural
1 nosotros/nosotras we (masc./fem.)
2 vosotros/vosotras you (masc./fem. pl., familiar)
3 ellos they (masc. people or objects)
ellas they (fem. people or objects)
ustedes you (formal, pl.)
Note: The masculine plural forms ‘nosotros and ellos must be used when referring to two
or more people (or objects) when some are masculine and some are feminine, as
explained above with reference to vosotros.
Regular verbs
Verbs that follow certain rules and whose forms are therefore predictable, are called
‘regular verbs’. Once you have learnt the pattern of regular verbs you can confidently use
any regular verbs in the same way.
There are three categories of regular verbs in Spanish: -ar, -er, and -ir verbs. The -ar,
-er and -ir refer to the endings of these verbs in their infintive form, i.e. the form that you
Basic Spanish: A grammar and workbook 20