Basic Spanish Pronouns

Direct Object Pronouns

Personal Pronouns

Personal pronouns in Spanish are used almost the same way as their English equivalents. However, the main difference is that in Spanish they do not need to be expressed since the verb itself will identify the subject. This happens in English with the third person singular of the present tense (to think-> thinks), where the -s shows us that we're dealing with a he, she or it, although in English the pronoun is never omitted with the exception of the imperative ("Sit down!", not "You, sit down!"), unless we want to emphasize on the person being addressed with the command. In Spanish, a pronoun is only needed when refering to a third person (singular or plural) for proper identification purposes since it can be a "she", a "he" or even a formal second person singular. In the plural, the verb ending could be referring to a "they" (masculine or feminine) or to "ustedes", a form of the second person plural used by everyone in all the Hispanic countries, except in Spain, where "vosotros" is preferred.

 

 

The "Vos" Pronoun

 

There is also another second person singular ("vos") used in some Latin American countries (especially the ones in the South Cone [Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay], although in some Central American countries it is also used [Costa Rica, for example]). The conjugation for the "vos" in the present indicative differs from the standard second person singular (tú) in that the stress for the pronunciation lies on the last syllable, and not in the penultimate syllable: tú sabes -> vos sabés (you know).

 

 

Singular	Plural
Yo (I)	Nosotros/nosotras (we: masculine/feminine)
Tú/vos/usted (you/you/formal 'you' singular)	Vosotros/vosotras/ustedes (you all: masculine/feminine)
El/ella	Ellos/ellas (they: masculine/feminine)

Some examples:

Spanish	English
Yo quiero estudiar or Quiero estudiar	I want to study
Tú quieres comer or Quieres comer	You want to eat
*Ella quiere correr or Quiere correr	She wants to run
*Ellos quieren hablar or Quieren hablar	They want to talk

 

Notice how in Spanish the verb ending identifies the subject, except when using a third person, in which case we have several possibilities. In those cases you will find that either the subject is identified through the use of the personal pronoun or name, or it has been identified in a previous sentence.

Direct Object Pronouns