Subjects and Their Pronouns in Spanish

This article is one of a series called Spanish Tidbits for Beginners. Readers need a general working vocabulary base, as these lessons focus on specific grammar and vocabulary content.

Every basic sentence in English contains a subject and a verb. The subject is a noun or pronoun, and the verb agrees with the noun. This article will cover the personal subject pronouns, and gives some explanations of things we need to know about using them!

Pronouns

When speaking about ourselves, other people, or things, we usually begin our sentence with a noun, like Bob, or a pronoun, like you. Once we have established what the subject of the sentence is, we can substitute the noun with a pronoun.

Here is a chart of the subject pronouns in Spanish with their English counterparts. Get familiar with this format; you will see it often in various forms.

Singular

first person yo (I)

second person tú (you familiar)

third person – (it; there’s no written or spoken equivalent because it’s understood), Ud. (you formal), él (he), ella (she)

Plural

first person nosotros, nosotras (we, masculine and feminine, respectively)

second person vosotros, vosotras (you familiar, masculine and feminine, respectively)

third person – (they impersonal), Uds. (you), ellos (they masculine or mixed), ellas (they feminine)

There are several things to notice and learn here.

> There are singular and plural subject pronouns, just like in English.

> Each “person” gets a number. Like in English, we say “first person singular,” “first person plural,” etc. It’s a good idea to get used to these labels.

> Some numbers have more than one “person.”

> The pronouns in the first and second persons plural have a masculine and feminine form. Those ending in -os are masculine, those ending in -as are feminine. This is usually true for many words.

> The third persons have several pronouns: singular and plural forms of it, you formal, he, and she. Even though you in English is understood to be the second person, in Spanish, the you formal is in the third person.

> There is no subject pronoun for it, singular or plural. It is understood by the verb in the sentence and by context. If we have established the noun that is the subject of the sentence, it is understood.

>Vosotros and vosotras are you plural familiar in parts of the Spanish-speaking world. Ustedes is more widely used and is employed for either you plural.

> In the plural, use the masculine ending for groups of all males or mixed with males and females, regardless of the proportion.

> By the way, the subject pronouns are not the same as object pronouns.

> Every “person” has its own verb ending.

> Remember there are two different words for yousingular, tú and usted. Tú is used when addressing a young person, peer, child, family member, or pet. But when you speak to an adult outside your family, you use usted. (For a more complete explanation, see my companion article.)

To get a thorough treatment of the concept of using subjects with verbs, see my companion article “Conjugating Verbs and How They Are Used with Subjects in Spanish.”

Exercises: Subjects and Their Pronouns

Who are the subject pronouns for each subject given? Think about how you would convert in English a person’s name to his subject pronoun. The English and Spanish are both shown for you.

Joe -> he

Joe -> él

Now do this in Spanish using the subject pronoun chart given in your notes above. For I, just write the Spanish pronoun to show you know it. The word y means and. Use it to combine two or more people into one compound subject, the kind you find in the plural side of the chart. For example, Kenny y yo equals nosotros because Kenny is included and I am included, making we.

1. Frank

2. I

3. you, my dear friend (i.e. you familiar)

4. Carla

5. Carla and I

6. Frank and I

7. Frank and Carla

8. Frank, Carla, and I

9. you and Carla

10. you, Mr. Brown (i.e. you formal)

Answers

1. él; 2. yo; 3. tú; 4. ella; 5. nosotros or nosotras (if you are female); 6. nosotros; 7. ellos; 8. nosotros; 9. vosotros (for you familiar plural in some Spanish-speaking countries) or vosotras (for you familiar plural in some Spanish-speaking countries and if you’re female) or ustedes (abbreviated Uds.); 10. usted (abbreviated Ud.)

Reference:

• www.associatedcontent.com/article/2188367/nouns_and_their_articles_in_spanish.html?ca
• www.associatedcontent.com/article/2225105/the_preterite_tense.html?cat=59
• www.associatedcontent.com/article/2168265/study_suggestions_for_practicing_a.html?cat