Three ways to say you
English gets by with a single word for the person in front of you: you works for your best friend, your boss and a police officer alike. Spanish makes the choice grammatical: it depends on closeness, politeness and region, and it changes not just the pronoun but the verb form.
The same question in three forms
¿Tienes tiempo?
Do you have time? (tú)
¿Tiene tiempo?
Do you have time? (usted)
¿Tenés tiempo?
Do you have time? (vos)
When formal, when informal
usted - formal
Older people and adults you do not know
Work, authorities, doctors, customers
tú / vos - informal
Friends, family, people your own age
Children, young people, social media
With older people and strangers, usted is the safe choice. If the other person offers the informal form (puedes tutearme, you can call me tú), switch to tú or vos. In parts of Colombia and in Costa Rica, usted is also used with friends and family.
usted takes the third person
Usted does not take the you-form of the verb. It takes the same form as él/ella (he/she), because it comes from vuestra merced, "your grace": you are grammatically addressing a title, not a person.
usted = él/ella
| Verb | él / ella | usted | tú |
|---|---|---|---|
| hablar (to speak) | habla | habla | hablas |
| tener (to have) | tiene | tiene | tienes |
| ser (to be) | es | es | eres |
usted in a sentence
Usted tiene razón, señor.
You are right, sir.
¿En qué puedo ayudarle?
How can I help you?
¿Podría repetirlo, por favor?
Could you repeat that, please?
In formal speech the conditional sounds more polite than the present, like English could versus can: ¿Podría ayudarme? instead of ¿Puede ayudarme?
The voseo
Where vos is used, it replaces tú as the everyday you and addresses one person, not several. Its verb form is end-stressed and has no diphthong: tú tienes becomes vos tenés. The endings are -ás (-ar), -és (-er) and -ís (-ir).
Present - tú against vos
| Infinitive | tú | vos |
|---|---|---|
| hablar | hablas | hablás |
| comer | comes | comés |
| vivir | vives | vivís |
| tener | tienes | tenés |
| ser | eres | sos |
The diphthong of tú disappears because the stress moves onto the ending (tú tienes, vos tenés). Only ser is irregular: vos sos. For -ar verbs the tú and vos forms are often identical (estás).
The imperative is the infinitive without -r, with the stress on the last syllable: hablá, comé, vení. Instead of ve, ir gives andá.
vos in everyday use
¿Qué hacés el finde?
What are you doing this weekend?
Vos sos mi mejor amigo.
You are my best friend.
Vení, que empieza la película.
Come on, the film is starting.
Pronouns, possessives and plural
English keeps you and your the same however polite you are. In Spanish the form of address pulls the other pronouns along: usted takes the third-person set, while vos shares nearly everything with tú; only after a preposition does it stay vos instead of ti.
The forms side by side
| Function | tú | usted | vos |
|---|---|---|---|
| Verb (tener) | tienes | tiene | tenés |
| Direct object | te | lo / la | te |
| Indirect object | te | le | te |
| Reflexive | te | se | te |
| Possessive | tu / tus | su / sus | tu / tus |
| After a preposition | ti (contigo) | usted | vos |
The pronouns in a sentence
Esto es para usted, y ya le escribí.
This is for you, and I have already written to you.
Esto es para vos, te lo prometo.
This is for you, I promise.
English you is also the plural, Spanish needs a choice. In Latin America there is only ustedes, formal and informal. In Spain, vosotros is informal and ustedes formal. vos has no plural of its own.
