Personal pronouns are used either to refer to the participants in a conver-
sation (‘I/me’, ‘you’, ‘we/us’) or in place of nouns or names (e.g. ‘I can see
her’ instead of ‘I can see María’). Despite being called personal pronouns,
they can in the 3rd person refer also to animals, things or neuter concepts.
They exist for the following categories of use: as subject(e.g. English ‘she’
or ‘we’), as direct object(e.g. ‘her’ or ‘us’), as indirect object (e.g. ‘to her’
or ‘to us’) and after prepositions(e.g. ‘behind her’ or ‘behind us’). Pronouns
may also be used reflexively(e.g. English ‘herself’ or ‘ourselves’).
There are forms in each category which correspond to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd
persons singular and plural. In addition, in Spanish the pronouns used to
address other people vary depending on the appropriate degree of formality
(e.g. túis familiar whereas ustedis generally polite).
Finally, differences of usage can be identified between Spain and Latin
America, and even within Spain. A list of forms (excluding reflexives) is
given in Table 8.1. For reflexive pronouns, see 8.4.
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
70 41111
Chapter 8 Personal pronouns
Accents on pronouns
1 Written accents are required on mí ‘me’, tú‘you’ and él‘he’ to
distinguish them from the similarly spelled words mi‘my’, tu
‘your’ and el‘the’. There is no written accent on ti, as there is no
other similarly spelled word.
2 The direct and indirect object pronouns (or weak pronouns) can
only be used in conjunction with a verb, whereas the subject
pronouns and the prepositional object pronouns (or strong
pronouns) can be used independently.
For example, you translate ‘her’ using la in La he visto ‘I have seen
her’, but if ‘her’ is used in isolation, as in ‘Who did you speak to?’ ‘To
her’, the form ellamust be used:
–¿Con quién hablaste? –Con ella.(never ×Con la×).
