009. Tú, usted and vos in Spanish.
Hola mis amores, welcome to the 7th episode of The Spanish Studio Podcast, this is Meli and today we will learn about the subject pronoun “You” in Spanish, you as a singular person.
No matter what’s your level in Spanish, you need to know that Spanish has three different words to say “YOU”. What’s the difference between them? Well, is easy words is your closeness to other people and where you are.
In school, probably they taught you that “tú” is informal and “usted” is formal. Well, I wouldn't say that that is 100% correct. This would make sense when you are at school learning Spanish but it will stop making sense when you go to a country and realise that people not necessarily use it as informal vs formal. Since many people use “usted” as a predominant “you” form even in informal scenarios or with very close people.
Normally, every country would use a combination of two forms, for example in Spain they usted “tú” and “usted”. Tú for friends, between young people, people that they know, etc. And “usted” for elders, people they don’t know, etc.
In Costa Rica, our combo is “vos and usted”. So, for sure we use “usted” for elders, authorities, people we don’t know or formal contexts but we also use “usted” between friends, specially people from the capital. In my province is more common to use “vos” with everybody, sometimes someone that I am not familiar with, uses “vos” when talking to me, for example, the cashier in a shop. And no one gets offended by this or feels disrespected.
Countries in Central America as Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, etc… and countries in South America such as Argentina and Uruguay… use “vos” a lot, in all contexts and scenarios and we don’t really use “tú”. In Costa Rica, we have a big influence of Mexican tv, so sometimes people would use “tú” or even say “güey” which is “dude” in Mexican slang, but it is not part of our identity as Costa Ricans.
I don’t like to generalise when it comes about the Spanish language and how we use it because there are always exceptions. For example, people think that in Colombia they use only “tú” and “usted”, but they also use “vos”, so in Colombia they use all 3 depending on the area you go, For example, Paisas… people from Cali are known for using “vos”. So if you go to Colombia, you might hear people using and switching between “tú and vos”.
So, to finish the first point. The conclusion is that first and more importantly, all forms are correct and zero disrespectful. Second, you will hear the differences depending on where the person is from, if you have a Colombian friend from Bogotá, he would use “tú” with you but you also have another Colombian friend, this one from Cali and he would use “vos” with you.
Conjugations and examples:
If you are speaking to me right now you can use “tú, usted or vos”. Ahora, it is important that you stick to one of them and don’t mix conjugations. For example, if I ask you “Who are you?” I can say:
One, using “tú”: Quién eres tú?
Two, using “usted” Quién es usted?
Three, using “vos”: Quién sos vos?
Many times you won’t hear people saying “tú, vos or usted” because in Spanish, the personal pronouns are optional. So you could only say:
Quién eres or quién sos? Since these two conjugations of the verb to be “ser” can only work for “tú” and “vos”.
In the case of “usted”, sometimes it might be necessary to say “usted” since the conjugation of the verb works for she, he, and you: “él, ella, usted es”. So, say “quién es usted? To be clear and precise.
Some other times the conjugation of the verbs using tú and vos are the same, for example, If I ask you: Where are you?
One, using “tú”: Dónde estás tú?
Two, using “vos”: Dónde estás vos?
Three, using “usted” Dónde está usted?
Notice that dónde estás, work for both: tú and vos. But it is different when using “usted”.
Let’s try now with commands, if I want you to do something like “Turn off the light”
One, command using “tú”: Apaga la luz. (second syllable is stressed)
Two, command using “vos”: Apagá la luz (it has an accent mark, last syllable is stressed)
Three, command using “usted”: Apague la luz.
Another command, a harsh one: Shut up!
One, command using “tú”: Cállate. (first syllable is stressed)
Two, command using “vos”: Callate (second syllable has a natural stress)
Three, command using “usted”: Cállese.
If you are a beginner focus on “usted” and “tú”, unless you are interested on a dialect where people use “vos” more than “tú”. If you are intermediate to advance, start learning and practicing “vos”, it is also nice that someone like you go to a country and can understand how we speak. Meli as Spanish Tutor, I speak to my students using “tú” because normally this is what everybody is familiar with, but me, Meli as a person… I don’t use “tú” is my personal life, only when I speak to my Spaniard friends. But in Costa Rica I never use “tú”, I only use “vos” and “usted”.
Learning the conjugations of “vos” are not too hard, since many times the difference is just that the last syllable has the stress when “tú” has it on the first or second syllable. If your family or friends are from countries like Argentina or Nicaragua, I highly recommend you to practice “vos”, since they are top using “vos”. You can watch on Netflix an amazing movie from Uruguay, it is a real story called “La Sociedad de la Nieve” or you can watch “Love is Blind Argentina”, where they refer to each other using “vos”. Or just watch content from different countries and pay attention to details as if they use “tú, vos or usted”, for example, Mexican casual content will always use “tú”, while Costa Rican content might use either “vos” or “usted”.
I hope this clarifies your questions about “tú, usted y vos” in Spanish.
Muchas gracias por escucharme y leerme, besitooosssss!
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