Spanish Language and Culture 10-3Y

2.5 Vocabulario

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Subject pronouns are used to replace the noun in a sentence. We use them to talk about people, and to people. 

Here are the subject pronouns in Spanish with their English equivalents. 

• yo — I


• tú — you (informal)


• usted — you (formal)


• él, ella — he, she


• nosotros, nosotras — we (the first form refers to a group of males or males and females, while the second form refers to females only)


• vosotros, vosotras — you / you guys  (informal or familiar plural; the first form refers to a group of males or males and females, while the second form refers to females only; this pronoun is not used in Latin America, but is used  in Spain.


• ustedes — you / you guys (plural)


• ellos, ellas — they (the first form refers to a group of males or males and females, while the second form refers to females only)

Because the verb form often indicates who the subject of a sentence is certain pronouns are often not included in the sentence EG:    Yo hablo mucho is often expressed as  Hablo mucho .
For now, it is important that we include the subject pronouns at all times - but be aware, you will see and hear sentences without them. 



Did you notice that there is no pronoun listed for "it" as a subject; in sentences where we'd use the subject "it" in English, the use of the third-person verb nearly always makes a pronoun unnecessary.  EG: Es un libro.  Está bien.  Once in a rare while, when needed for clarification, you may hear él used to mean "it" when referring to a masculine noun and ella to refer to a feminine noun.

Subject pronouns are used for following:

To avoid ambiguity: Context doesn't always make clear who the subject is, and some verb forms are ambiguous. Juan y María son alumnos. Él estudia mucho. John and Mary are students. He studies a lot. (Without the pronoun, it is impossible to tell whom the second sentence refers to.)

Usted and ustedes: Even where not strictly necessary, usted and ustedes are sometimes included and can add a degree of politeness. ¿Cómo está (usted)? How are you? Espero que (ustedes) vayan al cine. I hope you are going to the movies.

Note:  Vos is used in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Nicaragua and in other Spanish dialects. It is used instead of tú. This subject pronoun will not be studied in this course.