How Do You Say You Know Formally in Spanish
Here's an piece of cake trivia question: How many fingers exercise you have on your left manus?
That's how many ways there are to say "you" in Spanish!
You can saytú, usted, ustedes, vos or vosotros.
And they all hateful the same thing: Y'all!
Then what's the departure? What's the point of having five dissimilar ways to say the same thing?
Ah, that'south the catch: All those words might mean "you," merely they're all slightly unlike. Which pronoun you employ depends entirely on the state of affairs.
Don't worry! We're here to clear things up.
In this post, we'll accept a closer look into every way to say "you lot" in Spanish, and nosotros'll acquire when to properly utilize each one.
Download: This web log post is available equally a convenient and portable PDF that you lot can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
How to Determine Which Castilian Form of "You" to Use
The thought of multiple ways to say "you" might be a foreign concept for English-speakers. After all, we only have the one lonely "yous," which we use for, well, basically everything. And so a class well-nigh how to say "you" in English would be pretty short: It's "you." Next lesson!
But in Castilian, there are 5 words that hateful "yous," and the differences between them aren't minor. Each word has a specific part in the language, and they're often not interchangeable. Which form you utilize depends on:
- The number of people you're talking to
- The specific dialect you're speaking
- The formality (or informality) of the state of affairs
So when choosing which "you lot" to utilize, you'll have to keep in mind whether you're talking to one person or to many, whether you're in Spain, Mexico or some other Spanish-speaking country and whether yous're addressing friends, acquaintances or people of a higher social status than you.
The first two are fairly straightforward, but the concluding one seems to have a lot of jerk room. How do you know if a situation is formal or breezy? Here are some guidelines to assist you decide:
- Age:Addressing somebody older than you? That's a dead giveaway right there. You'd better show deference and use the formal "you."
If it'southward somebody your ain age, so y'all accept more elbowroom. You can speak informally to those younger than you (unless they're of a higher social status!).
- Social condition:If you're speaking to your boss or anyone else college up on the social ladder than you, then go formal. If it's just your colleagues or friends horsing effectually, then informal is perfectly fine.
- Social altitude:If you're talking to a complete stranger or even an acquaintance, so consider the situation formal. If you're among friends, about of whom are passed out on the floor… then you can actually say anything you similar, can't y'all?
If you're having difficulty determining the about appropriate give-and-take to use, err on the side of caution and apply the more formal version.
Still not sure? Try the "High-Five Test." It's a quick imagination practice which helps determine whether the situation is formal or non. Await into your mind's heart and imagine giving the other person a high five, out of nowhere. Just put it at that place and slap that mitt.
How did that experience in your caput? Did the other person fifty-fifty meet your palm? Or did he call up you were going to strike him and protected himself instead?
Did it feel weird? Or totally normal?
If you can imagine high-fiving the other person without the least fleck of awkwardness, then y'all can talk to them informally. If not, and then information technology'south probably best to address them formally.
2 Important Things to Remember About "You" in Spanish
Zeroing in on the correct "y'all" form is crucial to being understood and non offending anyone. Here are two more than actually important facts to recall near these pronouns:
Unlike forms of "you lot" accept different verb conjugations.
For instance, the common expression "Accept a dainty day!" will exist different depending on whether you're usingtú (informal) orusted (formal):
¡Que tú tengas un buen día!
¡Que usted tenga un buen día!
They both mean the aforementioned thing, just the accompanying verb forms depend on which "you" is being used in the sentence.
(Annotation: For discussion purposes, detect that we don't drop the "you." Many Spanish speakers ofttimes simply drib the pronoun birthday. And then instead of saying, "Tú tienes suerte"[You lot are lucky], they simply say, "Tienes suerte," which means the same affair.)
We all know that verb conjugation is a rich field, and luckily, at that place are enough of available resources online for learning the ins and outs of it:
- Learn the basics of Spanish verb conjugationwith FluentU.
-
For a quick conjugation cheat canvass, click the "Infographic" tab over at Spanish 411. - And for the whole shebang, Spanishdict has an excellent verb conjugator. Just blazon your verb, press "Enter" and you become the verb'south different conjugations in every tense that y'all can possibly imagine.
The "you" forms alter depending on their function in the sentence.
Remember when I said earlier that at that place are 5 "y'all" forms in Spanish? Well, that's the case when "you" is the field of study of a sentence.
Simply as a pronoun, "you" tin be placed at unlike points in a sentence and tin can function every bit a direct object, indirect object, the object of a preposition, etc. It's pretty versatile!
In English, this doesn't really matter because "you" is "you" is "you"—regardless of its office in the sentence:
Yous (subject) are beautiful.
The car hit you (direct object) at ninety mph.
Jake sent yous (indirect object) flowers.
In Spanish, though, each of these situations calls for a specific grade of the "you lot."
Allow's taketúfor example. It changes intote when information technology'southward used as an indirect or direct object and intoti when used as an object of the preposition:
Alguiente mandó flores para tu cumpleaños. (Someone sent you flowers for your altogether.)
Este flor es para ti. (This blossom is for y'all.)
And then the túis actually a shapeshifter and changes depending on its part in the judgement. And this goes for the other four forms as well—usted, ustedes, vos, vosotros.
IPFW has a keen nautical chart to help you come across what these change into when they have on different functions in a sentence. This is just something y'all need to call up, so report that chart!
That said, let'due south look into each of the five forms of "you" in Spanish and learn when to properly unleash them.
v Means to Say "You lot" in Spanish and How to Use Each Correctly
Tú(Singular, Informal)
Túis used when you're referring to a single person and they'resomebody you're familiar with—a friend, a family unit member, a colleague, somebody younger than yous or someone your ain age.
If the other person's seen you finish off a plate of spaghetti with your confront, or if you're talking to your cousin who borrowed and never returned your "Back to the Hereafter" DVDs, you can safely refer to them astú.
You tin can also use túwith pets, similar when you say, "Tú eres mi vida"(You are my life) to your clueless true cat.
Tú is warm and engaging. It's universally recognized in the Spanish-speaking world: Wherever you are, y'all can use it when talking to an individual you're close with.
Oh, and don't forget the emphasis mark on top of theu. Information technology'due south non there to make the word look more exotic. Tu without the accent mark means "your"… as in, "Your DVDs aren't coming dorsum."
Usted (Singular, Formal)
Usted is singular, liketú,which means it's used when yous're talking to just i person. The departure is that usted is more formal than tú.
Utilise usted every bit a sign of deference to people of a higher social status than yous—your boss, elder members of your family, a regime official, a instructor or a doctor (in other words, any person you respect and/or actually wouldn't want to upset).
Usted is a fusion of the one-time phrase "vuestra merced," which was used to address superiors in the fifteenth and 16th centuries. It means "your mercy" or "your grace."
Usted can be used and is understood in most of the Castilian-speaking world.
Retrieve when I said to always err on the side of politeness? When you're initially meeting a person, apply usted. Say:
¿Cómo se llama usted? (What is your name?)
It's better to first with usted than to assume familiarity and later have to walk back your tú.
If the other person thinks you lot're beingness too formal, he'll let y'all know by maxim "Puedes tutearme," which means you tin can apply the tú form with them. It's like your boss telling you, "Merely call me John" after you've been "Mr. Smith-ing" his ears off.
Vos (Singular, Formal and Informal)
Here'southward where things get fun. In some regions, instead of differentiating betwixt tú and usted,speakers merely use vos when addressing an individual.Vos used to but replacetú merely information technology'due south increasingly becoming accepted every bit a replacement forusted as well.
Voseo , or the apply of vos, is used mainly in Latin America, in countries like Argentine republic, Paraguay, Uruguay and some parts of Chile and Central America.
1 glaring exception for using vos is Spain, which doesn't utilise the form. They call up they're too cool for information technology. (Kidding!)
Happy Hour Spanish has a map of countries in South America that employ vos. Only honestly, the geographic distribution isn't at all that tidy. Information technology'south very hard to pinpoint exactly which places use it because even in a single country, a region may be using vos and just a few miles north, up the mountain or down the valley, you might heartú in conversation instead.
Think that which form you utilise volition modify the verb'due south conjugation. With tú, you'd say "Tú eres…"("You are…"). With vos, you lot say "Vos sos…", as in:
Vos sos muy bella. (You are very beautiful.)
Vosotros (Plural, Informal)
Vosotros is used to informally address a group of people. It's the "you" in plural course, like the "y'all" of a Texan drawl.
For instance:
He preparado un pastel paravosotros. (I have baked a cake for you all.)
If the group y'all're addressing is composed of women, it becomes vosotras. If you lot're addressing a mixed or entirely male group, the masculine class,vosotros, is used.
Spain may not utilise vos, but it definitely uses vosotros. This time, it'due south practically the only land that uses it.
Remember that although the different Spanish-speaking countries basically understand each other, it'due south of import to know beforehand which blazon of Spanish you lot specifically want to acquire.
There are differences betwixt dialects, regions and countries. So think of the people y'all'll likely exist conversing with in the futurity. Will they be from Spain, United mexican states or South America? Plan your studies accordingly.
You lot can get an online tutor from the area, for example. You'll non only larn the nuances from the region, you'll also acquire the most appropriate idioms, slang and insights into the culture.
Ustedes (Plural, Formal and Informal)
In Spain, they use vosotros for informal situations and ustedes for more formal ones. Simply because Latin American countries don't utilisevosotros, they only say ustedes for both formal and informal interactions with groups of people.
Ustedes is for when you lot're addressing two or more people, as in:
¿Quieren ustedes ir a la playa? (Practise yous guys want to get to the beach?)
Which, in landlocked countries like Paraguay and Bolivia, is akin to request, "Do you lot desire to become abroad?" It all just goes to show you lot: Context is everything!
Now you lot know 5 different means to say "you" in Spanish! The Spanish language is rich like that. But don't worry if it takes time to get the hang of the nuances. With practise, you lot'll somewhen get at that place.
Best of luck to yous!
Download: This blog postal service is available every bit a user-friendly and portable PDF that you can accept anywhere. Click here to get a re-create. (Download)
Source: https://www.fluentu.com/blog/spanish/you-in-spanish/
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