Español en serio
All the Ways to Say “you”
Dieser Beitrag erklärt ein wichtiges Thema der spanischen Grammatik (Text auf Englisch).
In English, when we address one person or more than one, we simply say you. But this is not the case in other languages. Actually, only modern Scandinavian languages clearly share this feature with English: Swedish, Danish and Norwegian also use a single pronoun du for both formal and informal situations. But most other European languages have two different forms, the formal you and the informal you, which in Spanish are usted and tú. I will say something very basic, but some people simply didn’t notice this, especially when they speak only their native language: something expressed with one word in one language can be expressed with two in another language. Do not expect one-to-one translations.
“Ay, please your grace” (Henry VIII, by William Shakespeare)
In general, we use tú when talking with friends or family, and usted when we want to show respect. The plural is a little more complicated: the informal form is vosotros/vosotras (“you all”) and the formal equivalent is ustedes. However, outside most regions of Spain, native speakers do not use vosotros/vosotras. You will hear these forms mainly in the North and Centre of Spain, but clearly not in everyday Spanish in Andalusia, the Canary Islands or Latin America. So the plural you is mainly ustedes.
I wrote a blog explaining more:
tú vs usted
.
And where does the form usted come from?
In the 15th and 16th centuries, we had vuestra merced (literally, your grace), to address a person very respectfully, mainly in the Court. And to be totally clear, people used the verb in the 3rd person (the forms used for “él, ella” and not the form used for “tú”), which made sense, because it was crucial to distinguish formal and informal ways to speak. So remember to use the same form for “él, ella, usted”: él habla, ella habla, usted habla. Then, you only need a few centuries and evolution to go from vuestra merced to usted. Consider that languages are constantly evolving, and in many cases, changes are made to speak more quickly.
💡 From vuestra merced to usted:
vuestra merced → vuesa merced → vuesarced → vuesarcé → vuesé → usted
Example from the episode
In episode 4, I explain the Simple Present Tense with all the personal pronouns, including tú, usted, vosotros/vosotras and ustedes.
Read the full episode here →
Episode 4
Bachelor’s degree in Literature (University of Buenos Aires). Spanish and Literature teacher. Researcher and author of Los premios Nobel de literatura. Una lectura crítica (University of Seville). More than 30 years’ experience teaching Spanish to international students.
One-to-one lessons via Zoom.
Contact: laura@spanishforlondon.com
Abschluss in Literaturwissenschaft (Universität Buenos Aires). Lehrerin für Spanisch und Literatur. Forscherin und Autorin des Buches Los premios Nobel de literatura. Eine lectura crítica (Universität Sevilla). Über 30 Jahre Erfahrung im Unterricht von Spanisch als Fremdsprache.
Einzelunterricht über Zoom.
Kontakt: laura@spanishforlondon.com
