LOS PRONOMBR

ESM/J Spanish 1

1.05

Before you start this unit, let’s review a few

English grammar points.

In English, when we talk about the subject of a

sentence we are talking about…

…the main idea of a sentence.

For example, in the sentence,

“The boy listens to great music.”

“boy” is the subject, because the sentence

is about him.

If we want to talk about the boy

as the subject of a sentence

we could use the pronoun “he”.

The sentence then becomes:

He listens to great music.

“He” is the subject pronoun.

Do you know what the subject pronouns are in

English?

The subject pronouns in English are

I

YouHeSheWe

They

The subject pronouns in Spanish are

yotúél

ellausted

nosotrosvosotros

ellosellas

ustedes

Why so many compared to English?

How many different ways do we say “you” in English if we use

slang?How about:

Yo!Youse

Youse guysY’all

All y’allAny others???

In Spanish, there are at least four (4) proper ways to say “you”:

túusted

vosotrosustedes

…And there are two ways to say “they””

ellos

ellas

So remember:Spanish isn’t English isn’t Spanish isn’t

English…

Let’s go over those Spanish pronouns:

Yo Means I

“I am a yo-yo…

Tú means you, my friend or familiar one

…you are a tu-tu…

Él means he

…he rides the El train...

Ella means she

…with my Aunt Ella….

‘Want to know what they all mean?

LOS PRONOMBRES yo tú él ella usted nosotros vosotros ellos ellas ustedes

I you, informal, singular he she you, singular, formal we you, plural, informal they they you, plural, formal

… THERE’S MORE TO COME! We’ll talk more

about how and when to use the different forms as we go along.

For now, because I am your teacher, you would use the “usted” form when addressing me.

Because you are my younger students, I would use the tú form when addressing one of you, and either the vosotros or ustedes form when addressing a group.