An appropriate form of mismo ‘myself’, ‘yourself’ etc. can be added as
appropriate for extra emphasis:
Tú y yo somos muy parecidos.
You and I are very much alike.
Usted mismo lo firmó.
You yourself signed it.
Yo puedo viajar hoy, pero él no podrá ir hasta mañana.
I can travel today, but he won’t be able to go until tomorrow.
Subject pronouns can also be used on their own without a verb:
–¿Quién abrió la puerta? ‘Who opened the door?’
–‘Yo’. ‘Me’.
Subject pronouns used with certain prepositions
The subject pronouns tú and yoare generally used, rather than the corre-
sponding prepositional object pronouns (míand ti), with the following: entre
‘between’, excepto/salvo/menos ‘except’, hasta/incluso ‘even/including’,
según‘according to’ and como ‘as/like’:
Entre tú y yo, creo que está chiflado.
Between you and me, I think he is barmy.
Care should be taken with después‘after’ and antes‘before’. The phrase
‘after you/me’ is expressed in Spanish using después de+ prepositional
object pronoun, but the phrase ‘before you/me’ is expressed using antes
que+ subject pronoun:
Intentaré después de ti. I’ll have a go after you.
si terminas antes que yo if you finish before me
8.1.2.2
1111
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1011
1
12111
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
20111
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
30111
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
40
41111
Subject
pronouns
73
Overuse of subject pronouns
In Spanish (unlike English) most verb endings are person-specific,
therefore they alone indicate the verb’s subject, e.g. corremos‘we
run’. Consequently the use of subject pronouns in Spanish is less
frequent than in English. Native speakers of English should take care
not to overuse them.
