Informal vs Formal You in Spanish: Tú vs Usted vs Vosotros vs Ustedes (2024)

The Spanish language is full of subtleties and linguistic nuances that learners encounter from the very beginning. One of the first such lessons is the difference between tú vs usted: the informal and formal you in Spanish. However, while you may be familiar with these differences in the singular, not everyone is aware of the existence of another dichotomy regarding the level of formality in the plural: vosotros vs ustedes.

In today’s poston you in Spanish, we bring you everything you need to know about tú vs usted vs vosotros vs ustedes. We’ll start with the basics, explaining each option for the Spanish you: informal and formal, singular and plural. To give a bit of background on how these different forms arose, we then delve into some linguistic historyof the Spanish language over time and space, explaining these quirks in expressing the informal vs formal you.

For completeness, we finish our post with some sections on grammatical particularities, namely how verbs are conjugatedfor each Spanish youform. We’ll also go over the direct and indirect object pronounsthat each Spanish youcan become, as well as their respective possessives.

Now let’s get to it!

Informal vs formal You in Spanish

There are several ways to say youin Spanish. The right choice depends on the number of peopleyou’re talking to, the degree of formality, and the regionyou’re in.

In addition, the informal plural youused in Spain has two forms, depending on whether you’re addressing men or women: vosotrosvs vosotras.

Before we look at each one individually, here’s a summary of the different yousin Spanish. In the first table we see that Spain and Latin America both use the same informal and formal youin Spanish when addressing a single person. It’s in pluralwhere there’s a difference between regions, with vosotrosvs ustedesas the informal you. The formal youis the same in both regions: ustedes.

Now let’s look at each Spanish youform in more detail.

Tú: The informal singular You in Spanish

Túis the informal singular youin Spanish, in both Latin America and in Spain.

The pronoun túis used as the informal you with friends, family, and people close to us.

Túhas its own verb conjugation in Spanish: the second-person singular.

Usted: The formal singular You in Spanish

Ustedis the formal youin Spanish. This is the singular form, used to address both men and women in both Spain and Latin America. It’s in the plural formal you that the two regions differ.

Ustedis used with people we don’t know very well, or as a way to show respect. We always use ustedwhen addressing the elderly or authority figures, for example.

Even though ustedis used as a second-person pronoun, it does not have its own conjugation pattern. Grammatically, ustedis considered as a third-person singularpronoun, so verbs follow the same conjugations as él and ella.

Vosotros / Vosotras: The informal plural You in Spain

In Spain, there are different plural pronounsfor the Spanish youthat correspond to the singular tú: vosotrosand vosotras.

Unlike tú, usted, or ustedes, this plural Spanish youhas two gendered forms: vosotrosand vosotras. We use nosotrosto address an all-maleor a mixed-genderedgroup of people, while vosotrasis used to talk to a female-only group.

The shorthand for including both genders is to include both endings as vosotros/as, or sometimes as vosotr@s. Inclusion is nonetheless generally implied simply by using the default form of vosotros, as we’re doing through most of this post.

Grammatically, when conjugating verbs, vosotrostakes a unique set of second-person pluralconjugations.

So where is vosotros used? It’s important to emphasize that, nowadays, vosotrosis used in Spain only. And even in Spain, there are some parts where it’s not really used, such as the Canarias and Western Andalucía. Vosotros/asis not used in Latin America.

Let’s review the contexts when vosotrosis used in Spain. Since vosotrosis the informal youin Spain, these are the same contexts as for tú, but in plural.

• When talking to friends, family members, or peers of your own age group.

• When addressing children or teenagers, even if they’re not closely related to you.

• In casual conversations, social gatherings, or relaxed environments.

Now let’s see a few examples using vosotrosand vosotras:

• Vosotrosestáis invitados a mi fiesta de cumpleaños. – Youare [all] invited to my birthday party.

• ¡Mamá, papá, vosotrossois los mejores padres del mundo! – Mom, Dad, youare the best parents in the world!

• Vosotrassois como hermanas para mí. – Youare like sisters to me.

Remember, vosotrosand vosotrasare the plural counterparts to the singular tú. Although it may seem logical, singular versions in the form of “vosotro” or “vosotra” do not exist.

Ustedes: Spain vs Latin America

To make a long story short, ustedesis the plural form of usted, so it’s the formal plural youin Spanish.

Similarly to ustedin the singular, ustedestriggers verb conjugations that follow the third-person pluralforms. This means that conjugations using ustedesare identical to those for ellosand ellas.

In Spain, the distinction of formality is respected in plural by choosing between vosotrosvs ustedeswhen addressing people informally vs formally. Here are some situations where you would use ustedesin Spain:

• When addressing people you don’t know well or have just met.

• When speaking to older individuals, regardless of your relationship.

• When interacting with teachers, bosses, colleagues, or other authority figures.

• When speaking to people you hold in high esteem, like mentors or public figures.

In Latin America, on the other hand, there is no distinction of formalitywhen addressing multiple people: ustedesis always used when talking to more than one person, regardless of formality. This means that, in Latin American Spanish, you’d always use ustedes, whether you’re addressing a group of children or a group of senators.

Vosotros vs Ustedes: Historical background

The evolution of the various forms of youin Spanish sheds light on why some of these differences persist across the Spanish-speaking world. Let’s look back to Europe many centuries ago, when there was even still a formal youin English: thou.

In the Middle Ages, the pronouns túand voscoexisted, the latter being used out of respect for people of high social standing. However, its ambiguous use in both singular and plural was remedied by adding the Spanish word otros, meaning others, to vos, creating vosotros.

At that point, the forms of Spanish youwere tú(singular informal), vos(singular formal), and vosotros(plural). However, the overuse of vosresulted in the loss of its distinction and formality. Nobles and people of high social status sought a way to be treated with proper deference, so vuestramerced(your mercy) and vuestrasmercedes (your mercies) emerged as a way to maintain that courtesy. Over time, these evolved into ustedand ustedes, which are still used to show respect and formality in Spain.

Vosotrosgradually disappeared in Latin America, with ustedesserving as the sole plural youform. In Spain, vosotroslost its formality and became the plural counterpart to tú.

As the language evolved over the centuries, the use of vosactually still persisted in a few regions farthest from Spain. The practice of using vos, known as voseo, is still alive in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and some areas of Central America. There, vosis used instead of tú; we explain its contemporary particularities in our post about voseoin Spanish.

Grammar: Second person vs Third person

So far in our discussion of when to use each form of youin Spanish, we gave a passing mention to how each one is considered gramatically when we refer to grammatical persons. In English, youis clearly a second-person pronoun. Here’s a refresher on what we mean by grammatical persons:

In Spanish grammar, however, only túand vosotros/asare considered second-personpronouns. Ustedand ustedesare considered third-personpronouns. This affects verb conjugation when using these pronouns, as well as other related forms such as object pronouns and possessives. We’ll look at those in the following sections, but for now let’s just review how these subject pronounsare considered as grammatical persons:

Now let’s look at different grammatical contexts where this difference in grammatical person manifests itself between our different forms of youin Spanish.

Conjugation

When conjugating using túand vosotros, our verb conjugations have distinct second-person forms. Ustedand ustedes, on the other hand, take the third-person conjugations. Let’s see this in action with multiple versions of a simple example sentence:

• Túhablasespañol. – You speak Spanish.

• Ustedhablaespañol. – You speak Spanish.

• Élhablaespañol. – He speaks Spanish.

• Vosotrashabláisespañol. – You speak Spanish.

• Ustedeshablanespañol. – You speak Spanish.

• Ellashablanespañol. – They speak Spanish.

As you can see, túand vosotros/ashave distinct conjugations, in contrast to ustedand ustedeswhich take the same conjugations as other third-person subjects.

You may have also noticed that there’s an accent mark on the vosotrosconjugation. This is usually the case, although this rule has exceptions as it depends on phonetic conditions.

Since ustedesis used in both Spain and Latin America, itsconjugation is well-known and understood by both. However, many Latin Americans struggle to conjugate correctly with vosotros. In fact, vosotrosconjugation seems quite foreign to people in the region, as it’s not regularly taught or seen. If your goal is to speak Latin American Spanish, you can certainly get away with not learning the vosotrosconjugations!

Direct object pronouns

Direct object pronounshelp clarify who is being affected by a verb’s action. Let’s review the table of direct object pronouns that correspond to each grammatical person. Remember that ustedand ustedesare considered as third-person pronouns.

A particularity with the direct object pronouns corresponding to ustedand ustedesis that, contrary to the gender-neutral aspect of the subject pronoun, their direct object pronouns need to reflect the genderof the person. The inverse is true for vosotros/as, whose direct object pronoun is osfor bothmasculine and feminine.

• Tequiero muchísimo, mi amiga. – I love you very much, my friend.

• Buenos días, Señor Díaz. ¿Usted está listo para partir? ¿Loespero? – Hello Mr. Díaz. Are you ready? Shall I wait for you?

• Usted es muy admirada, Señora. Laconsidero una inspiración. – You are much admired, Ma’am. I consider youan inspiration.

• Osquiero muchísimo, amigos. – I love you very much, my friends.

• ¿Disculpen, ustedesvan a la reunión? ¿Losespero? – Excuse me, areyou [all] going to the meeting? Shall I wait for you?

• Ustedes son muy admiradas, ingenieras. Lasconsideramos valiosas para nuestro proyecto. – Youare much admired, engineers. We consider youvaluable to our project.

Indirect object pronouns

Here’s our table of indirect object pronouns in Spanish. Those in the second personcorrespond with túand vosotros/as, while those in the third-personcorrespond with ustedand ustedes. There is no differentiation by gender.

• Tehice un pastel de cumpleaños. Espero que lo disfrutes. – I made youa birthday cake. I hope you enjoy it.

• Leenvié la invitación a usted por correo. – I sent the invitation to you by mail.

• Ledeseo un buen viaje a usted. – I wish youa good trip.

• ¿Están ustedes dos comprometidos? ¡Felicidades! ¡Os ofrezco una ronda de champán para celebrar! – You two are engaged? Congratulations! I offer you a round of champagne to celebrate!

• Lesenvié la invitación a ustedes por correo. – I sent the invitation to you by mail.

• Lesdeseo un buen viaje a todas ustedes. – I wish youall a good trip.

Note that in several of the examples we just saw, we also repeated the indirect object using a prepositional pronoun(each of which is preceded by a). These are not necessary in English, so our translations are still translating the bolded Spanish indirect object pronouns as you(or to you).

Possessives

Possessives help establish ownership and clarify relationships between individuals and the things they possess. Just like the other grammatical aspects we’ve already looked at, túand vosotros/ashave their own unique set of possessives, while ustedand ustedesuse the same ones as the other third-person subjects.

There are two types of possessives in Spanish: possessive adjectivesand possesive pronouns. Mixing the two up is a common mistake made by intermediate Spanish learners, so we’ll address each of them separately here.

Possessive adjectives: Your in Spanish

Possessive adjectivesare used before nouns to express that the noun belongs to someone. In Spanish, possessive adjectives are chosen depending on possessor, and they take different forms to agree in gender and number with what’s possessed.

In English, the possessive adjective for you is your. In Spanish, this becomes tuor tusfor tú, vuestro, vuestra, vuestros, or vuestrasfor vosotros/as, and suor susfor both ustedand ustedes. (Since they correspond to the third-person, suand susare the same possessive adjectives used for éland ella, in which case they’re translated as hisor her; when used for ellasand ellosthey’re both translated as their.)

To sum these up, here’s a table of the possessive adjectivesthat all mean your in Spanish. We organize them by owner, with the different forms depending on the gender and number of the possession.

Here are some examples for when we’re talking to a single person who we’d address as tú.As you can see, there’s an important distinction between túvs tu!

• Tufamilia es encantadora. – Yourfamily is lovely.

• Tushijos cantan en el coro. – Yourchildren sing in the choir.

In these next examples we’re talking to more than one person who we’d all address as tú, so in plural we’d address them as vosotros/as(the gender of the possessor doesn’t affect the possessive adjective).

• ¡Vaya! Vuestro carro es muy espacioso. – Wow! Yourcar is very spacious.

• Vuestrafamilia es encantadora, chicas. – Yourfamily is lovely, girls.

• ¡Gracias por venir a mi fiesta, chicos! ¡Me encantaron vuestros regalos! – Thanks for coming to my party, guys! I loved your gifts!

• Gracias, amigas.Vuestraspalabras me conmueven. – Thank you, friends. Yourwords move me.

In these examples, we can’t tell if we’re addressing a single person with usted, or multiple people with ustedes. In fact, we’d use the exact same wording if we were talking about a third person, so each translation as yourcould just as easily be his, her, its, or their.

• Superro es muy inteligente. – Yourdog is very smart.

• Sucasa tiene muchas ventanas. – Yourhouse has many windows.

• Sushijos cantan en el coro. – Yourchildren sing in the choir.

• Susgalletas favoritas son las de chispas de chocolate. – Yourfavorite cookies are chocolate chip cookies.

Possessive pronouns: Yours in Spanish

Possessive pronounsindicate ownership or possession of a person or thing by replacing the noun to which they refer. They show who something belongs to without needing to repeat the noun. Like the possessive adjectives, each Spanish youhas its corresponding possessive pronoun, each of which has multiple forms to reflect the gender and number of the possession.

In English, the possessive pronoun corresponding to youis yours. In Spanish, for túthis becomes tuyo, tuya, tuyos, or tuyas, for ustedand ustedesit becomes suyo, suya, suyos, or suyas, while for vosotrosthe possessive pronouns are identical to the possessive adjectives: vuestro, vuestra, vuestros, and vuestras.

To sum these up, here’s a table of the possessive pronounsthat all mean yours in Spanish. We organize them by owner, with the different forms depending on the gender and number of the possession.

In these examples, we see yoursin Spanish where we’d address the person as tú.

• Olvidé mi bolígrafo. ¿Puedo usar el tuyo? – I forgot my pen. Can I use yours?

• Esa bicicleta no es tuya. – That bike is not yours.

• ¿Son tuyosestos libros? – Are these books yours?

• Las galletas de mi mamá son buenas, pero las tuyasson mejores. – My mom’s cookies are good, but yoursare better.

In these next examples, we see yoursin Spanish where we’re addressing multiple people informally.

• El siguiente vuelo es el vuestro; el mío sale a medianoche. – The next flight isyours; mine leaves at midnight.

• ¡Oigan, chicas! Creo que esa gata es la vuestra. ¿Se habrá escapado? – Hey, girls! I think that cat is yours. Did she run away?

• Nuestros hijos se parecen mucho, pero no tanto como losvuestros, ¡parecen gemelos! – Our kids look a lot like each other, but not as much asyours, they look like twins!

• Siempre lo digo, chicos, no hay fiestas como las vuestras. – As I always say, guys, there are no parties like yours.

In this last set of examples, the possessive pronouns reflect the gender and number of whatever is possessed, whereas the details on the owner are less clear. Only in the last example, where we’re clearly addressing a woman formally, is it clear that suyasmeans yours directed at a single person. In the first three examples, the possessive pronouns could also mean hisor hersor its,or even yours directed at multiple people, since for the third person they’re all the same.

• El vestido de puntos rojos es el suyo. – The red-dotted dress is yours.

• Esa taza de café no es suya. – That cup of coffee is not yours.

• Mis pensamientos no son como los suyos. – My thoughts are not like yours.

• Me gustan las tartas de Marta, pero las suyasson mejores, Sra. Luisa. – I like Marta’s pies, but yoursare better, Mrs. Luisa.

Conclusion: You in Spanish

Congratulations! You’ve just had an in-depth lesson covering all the intricacies of youin Spanish. For such a straightforward word in English, we’ve seen that there are so many variations in Spanish! Let’s do a quick summary of what we’ve learned.

We started off with the four principal ways to say youin Spanish, depending on the level of formality and on the number of people being addressed. Túand ustedare the Spanish youforms to address a single person informally and formally, while their counterparts for addressing multiple people at once are vosotros/asand ustedes.

We saw how vosotroshas a feminine version, vosotras, which is used when addressing multiple people who are all female. We also learned that vosotros/asis really just used in Spain as the informal plural you, whereas in Latin America there’s no differentiation by level of formality, so ustedesis the only version for addressing any group. We took a look at the history of this regional quirk of the language, even learning about how the archaic vosform is still used in a few regions of Central and South America.

We went into the grammatical aspects of túvs ustedvs vosotrosvs ustedes, noting that ustedand ustedesfollow all third-persongrammar rules: from verb conjugation to object pronouns to possessives, these youforms can easily be confused with equivalents for him, her, and themin Spanish.

Taken as a whole, today’s lesson has provided an in-depth guide to all the aspects surrounding the different ways to address people in Spanish. This exploration has not only expanded your linguistic knowledge, it has also equipped you with a deeper understanding of the ways Spanish speakers navigate formality and communication in group settings.

Whether in Spainor in Latin America, whether addressing one personor multiple people, whether maleor femaleor a mix, and whether choosing an informalor formal you, Spanish provides way more detail but also follows very clear rules. Just apply what you’ve learned here and you’ll always use the right forms of youin Spanish!