When to use subject pronouns in Spanish?

Spanish has three pronouns for singular “you”: tú, usted, and vos. Let’s explore the first two.

Tú and usted (abbreviated as Ud.) vary in formality:

• Tú is less formal than usted. Its use varies from one Spanish variety to the next, but it’s safe to generalize that tú is used to address anyone your age or younger:

  Hola, Juan, ¿cómo estás (tú)?

  Translation: Hi Juan, how are you?

• Usted is more formal than tú. It’s used to address anyone older than you and/or someone you want to show respect. It’s also safe to assume that usted is the pronoun of choice for anyone you'd address with a title (doctors, professors, etc.):

  Doctor Martínez, ¿cómo está usted?

  Translation: Dr. Martínez, how are you?

To make things even more interesting, Spanish has a third pronoun for you-singular, namely pronoun vos. Let's go over what this pronoun is all about!

This pronoun is used instead of, or alongside, tú in several American regions. Its use and acceptance vary from region to region:

• In Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay, vos is generally accepted and is used instead of tú.

• In Central America, vos is used alongside tú.

• In parts of Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Cuba, Chile, and Southern Mexico,vos is generally accepted and is used alongside tú.

To learn how to conjugate verbs using the vos form, head over to: “How to use the pronoun ‘vos’ in Spanish?”

Ustedes (meaning you-plural) (abbreviated Uds.) is used in all varieties of Spanish. However, its use is more restricted in Spain.

• In Latin American Spanish, ustedes is the only form for the plural "you." It’s used in both formal and informal contexts as it’s the plural of tú, vos, and usted:

  • Hola, chicos, ¿cómo están (ustedes)?

    Translation: Hi guys, how are you?
  • Hola, Dr. Martínez y Dra. Pérez, ¿cómo están (ustedes)?

    Translation: Hello, Dr. Martínez and Dr. Pérez, how are you?

• In the Spanish spoken in Spain, ustedes is just the plural of usted. Therefore, ustedes is only used in formal contexts similar to the ones listed above:

  Hola, Dr. Martínez y Dra. Pérez, ¿cómo están (ustedes)?

  Translation: Hello, Dr. Martínez and Dr. Pérez, how are you?

  So, what's the plural of tú in Spain? The answer is vosotros and vosotras:

  Hola, chicos, ¿cómo estáis (vosotros or vosotras)? (meaning Hi guys, how are you?)

Here’s a summary of all the forms of “you” in Spanish:

The only difference between ellos and ellas, and nosotros and nosotras, is the gender of the nouns they stand for. The same difference applies to vosotros and vosotras.

Ellos, ellas, and nosotros refer, by default, to a group of all males or a group of males and females. Ellas, vosotras, nosotras refer to a group of all females.

For instance:

• Ellas ya terminaron.

  Translation: They are already finished.
• Nosotros no participamos.

  Translation: We don't participate.

There is no subject pronoun equivalent to the English “it.” Potential candidates such as él and ella only refer to people, they never refer to things. What’s the solution? We simply don’t use pronouns in instances where we would use the subject pronoun “it” in English.

Similarly, there’s no equivalent to the English “they,” when referring to non-humans:

The subject pronoun is used when the subject is the focus.

Compare these two dialogues:

• – ¿Cuántos años tienes?
  – (yo) Tengo veinte años. (meaning – How old are you?
  – I’m twenty years old.)
• – ¿Quién ha hecho esto?
  – He sido yo. (meaning – Who did this?
  – I did it.)

The focus of the first dialogue is not the subject, but the object of the verb (the number of years). Therefore, the subject pronoun can be omitted since the verb ending makes it clear. However, the focus of the second dialogue is the subject (who did something). Thus, to emphasize who the subject is, the pronoun is present.

The subject pronoun is present to mark the contrast between two different subjects, just like in English you would say “I” and “you” with emphasis:

We use subject pronouns when we change from one subject to another:

The use of usted (meaning you-formal) adds extra courtesy and formality.

• ¿Desea algo más?

  Translation: Would you like anything else?
• ¿Desea usted algo más?

  Translation: Would you like anything else?

The second sentence, which has a subject pronoun, conveys more formality than the first one, which omits usted.

Contrary to the rest of Spanish varieties, in the Spanish spoken in the Caribbean (Cuba, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and parts of Venezuela and Colombia), subject pronouns are expressed in the following contexts:

• In sentences that do not contrast between different subjects.

  • In Caribbean Spanish, a sentence like the following example is correct, despite the repetition of the subject:

    Yo terminé de estudiar, yo me fui al salón y yo lo llamé por teléfono.

    Translation: I finished studying, I went to the living room, and I phoned him.

  • The rest of the Spanish varieties avoid repetition of the same subject:

    Yo terminé de estudiar, me fui al salón y lo llamé por teléfono.

    Translation: I finished studying, went to the living room, and phoned him.

• In interrogative sentences where the subject is not the focus.

  • For instance, a question like ¿Qué tú quieres? (meaning What do you want?) is correct despite the fact that the subject is not the focus of the question (the focus is the “what someone wants” and not the “who wants something”). Notice how the subject pronoun goes before the verb. This is particular to Caribbean Spanish.

  • In the rest of the Spanish varieties, the previous question would be uttered or written without the pronoun: ¿Qué quieres? (meaning What do you want?). In case the subject pronoun were needed, it would go after the verb: ¿Qué quieres tú? (meaning What do you want?).

So far, we have considered sentences that have subject pronouns. However, Spanish has sentences without a specific subject. They are called impersonal sentences. Let’s see those next.