Spanish Subject Pronouns

You formal, you plural…you…what? 

一It’s easy to get in a muddle with Spanish subject pronouns. So here’s a simple explanation that will help you grasp them.

Spanish subject pronouns are words that express who or what is performing an action. They are the equivalent to the English pronouns “I”, “you”, “he”, “she”, “it”, “we”, and “they”.

Spanish subject pronouns are the building blocks that help you to start putting sentences together. That’s why everything you need to know about them is waiting for you in this article.

In this article we’ll cover:

• What is a subject pronoun?
• Spanish pronouns chart
  • Singular
  • Plural
• Characteristics of Spanish subject pronouns 
• “Tú” and “usted”
• “It” in Spanish
• Practice time
• Final words
• Answers

Going over Spanish pronouns could seem like you’re taking a step backward, we want to get talking, not get overly tied down with grammar! But learning this topic well will help you to build a solid foundation that you can build on. 

By the end of this article, you will be feeling more confident with the use of Spanish subject pronouns.

Time waits for no one, so let the building work begin!

What is a subject pronoun?

Spanish subject pronouns tell us who or what is performing the action of the verb. They replace a noun that could be: a person, a place, or a thing.

Examples:

• Ana is a Spanish student, she is beautiful and she is smart
  Ana es estudiante de español, ella es bonita y ella es inteligente

• Juan and I are friends, we are going to the party tomorrow
  Juan y yo somos amigos, nosotros vamos a la fiesta mañana

As you can see here the subject pronoun “ella” is used instead of saying the name “Ana” a dozen times. The same thing happened in the second example where we used “nosotros” instead of repeatedly saying “Juan y yo”.

Spanish subject pronouns simplify language the same as they do in English. That’s what makes learning this bit of grammar so important. So let’s lay down some seriously solid reinforced concrete here by getting familiar with these pronouns.

Spanish pronouns chart

Before checking out some examples and how they are used, let’s take a look at the Spanish subject pronouns chart next:

Subject pronouns
	Singular		Plural
First person	Yo	I	Nosotros, Nosotras	We
Second person	Tú/Usted	You ,You formal	Ustedes	You
Third person	Él/Ella	He/She	Ellos, Ellas	They

Note: “Él” is always written with an accent. If the accent isn’t there, it changes the word into the article “el” which means “the”. If you’d like to know more about articles, check out the guide on our website. 

After looking at our subject pronouns chart, perhaps two questions came to mind.

What on earth does “you formal” mean?  And how do you say “it” in Spanish?

Now those are excellent questions. But these are parts of grammar that are a little more complicated. So, let’s continue building a rock-hard foundation and consolidate the basics then work our way up. 

So, we’d like you to take another look at our subject pronouns chart. Go on, have another peek at it. As you can see, the subject pronouns have a quantity, either singular or plural. They also have a gender, either masculine or feminine. These factors change depending on the noun you are talking about. 

Don’t worry, there are some examples coming up in tres… dos… uno…

• He is Mexican
  Él es mexicano
  Gender: masculine, él
  Quantity: singular

• We are businesswomen 
  Nosotras somos mujeres de negocios
  Gender: feminine, nosotras
  Quantity: plural

• They are playing soccer
  Ellos están jugando fútbol
  Gender: masculine, ellos
  Quantity: plural

• Maria and Ana are friends, they are Argentinians
  Maria y Ana son amigas, ellas son argentinas
  Gender: feminine, Maria y Ana
  Quantity: plural

Memorizing the subject pronouns is a tricky feat, but something that we cannot avoid when learning Spanish. To get you in the swing of it, take a look at some more examples of subject pronouns in sentences.

Singular

Examples:

• I am a Spanish student
  Yo soy estudiante de español

• You are friendly
  Tú eres amigable

• He is my friend
  Él es mi amigo

• She is my sister
  Ella es mi hermana

Plural

• We are Americans
  Nosotros somos americanos

• We are Argentinians
  Nosotras somos argentinas

• You are my boss
  Usted es mi jefe

• You are my Spanish teachers
  Ustedes son mis maestros de español

• Ana and Luis are together, they are in the park
  Ana y Luis están juntos, ellos están en el parque

• Laura, Maria and Juana are kind, they are my friends
  Laura, Maria y Juana son amables, ellas son mis amigas

Note: If you are talking about a group of men and women together, the masculine Spanish subject pronoun is always used.

Characteristics of Spanish subject pronouns

There are a lot of differences between Spanish subject pronouns and the ones we use in English. Understanding these differences is like driving solid pillars in your Spanish comprehension. So, let’s have a look at those next.

1. Subject pronouns have a gender and a quantity. As we already checked in the previous examples, Spanish subject pronouns can be singular or plural. They can also be feminine or masculine depending on the subject they are replacing. 

2. Subject pronouns indicate how the verb must be conjugated in Spanish in any tense. Spanish verbs have different conjugations for every tense. They also have different conjugations for each subject pronoun. Now, this is an advanced topic. And since we don’t want to bite off more than we can chew, we’ll take a look at this idea in the simple present tense.

Subject pronouns	Estudiar	Trabajar
Yo	Estudio	Trabajo
Tú	Estudias	Trabajas
Él-Ella-Usted	Estudia	Trabaja
Ustedes-Ellos/Ellas	Estudian	Trabajan
Nosotros/Nosotras	Estudiamos	Trabajamos

But let’s not get too hung up about this right now. It will come with time. For now, we will continue explaining some basic ideas, with this we could continue building an unbreakable foundation.

3. Native speakers often drop the subject pronoun when talking and writing. This is because the verb conjugated in Spanish tells you which subject you are talking about. Dropping the subject pronoun is very common, so we’ll take a look at some examples.

• I am going to study Spanish in LingoToGo
  Yo voy a estudiar español en LingoToGo
  Voy a estudiar español en LingoToGo 

• She studies Spanish everyday
  Ella estudia español todos los días
  Estudia español todos los días

Ok, we guess that this is a lot of information! But don’t panic, as it will make more sense to you when you start getting familiar with more tenses.

“Tú” and “Usted”

Just when you thought that things were complicated enough, here comes another new thing. In singular Spanish, there are 2 ways of saying “You”. 

But what is the difference between the two of them?

Let’s take a look next. 

Tú vs Usted
Tú: You informal	Usted: You formal
Used to talk about…
A child A friend A relative A peer A colleague A pet	Someone older than you A stranger A superior like a boss or a teacher

Note: “Tú” in Spanish always has an accent, if it doesn’t, it changes to a possessive adjective and means “yours”.

Using Vos in Spanish

In some countries, instead of using the pronoun “tú”, they use the pronoun “vos”. You may have already heard this if you have watched any TV series from Latin American countries such as Argentina or Paraguay.

You’ve come to the end, great! You’re now more familiar with “tú” and “usted” and hey, you’re even getting your head around “vos”!

“It” in Spanish

Have you seen it? It isn’t in here, is it?

In English, the pronoun “it” is used to refer to objects, ideas, or even animals. But there isn’t a direct translation for this in Spanish. More often than not the “it” in a sentence is omitted. When the “it” is mentioned, it relies heavily on context. 

Now that all sounds way more complicated than it is. So, here are some examples that will make “it” clearer. (Pun intended.)

• The house is big and beautiful
  La casa es grande y bonita
  It is big and beautiful
  Es grande y bonita

• The car is red
  El carro es rojo
  It is red
  Es rojo

• Yes, it works!
  Sí, ¡funciona!

• Love is magic
  El amor es mágico
  It is magic
  Es mágico

Practice time

Exercise 1: Now it is your turn to practice. Choose the correct Spanish subject pronouns for the following sentences:

1. I/He/She want a coffee, please
   Yo/Él/Ella quiero un café, por favor

2. Sara is Colombian, he/she/they is very pretty
   Sara es Colombiana, él/ella/ellas es muy bonita

3. I/She/We are in a Spanish school
   Yo/Nosotros/Ella estamos en una escuela de español

4. I/You/You went to the party, what did you do?
   Yo/Usted/Tú fui a la fiesta, ¿ustedes que hicieron?

5. Luis is not Mexican, you/you/he is from Guatemala
   Luis no es mexicano, tú/él/vos es de Guatemala

6. Do you want to eat an apple? I/he/she don’t want to, thank you
   ¿Quieres comer una manzana? Yo/Él/Ella no quiero, gracias

7. Juan doesn’t want to study Portuguese, you/he/they wants to study Spanish
   Juan no quiere estudiar portugués, tú/él/ellos quiere estudiar español

8. Ana and I are going to Madrid tomorrow, you/they/we are very happy
   Ana y yo vamos a Madrid mañana, ustedes/ellas/nosotras estamos muy felices

9. Luis, Mario and Carlos are friends, they/he/you go to university together
   Luis, Mario y Carlos son amigos, ellos/él/ustedes van a la universidad juntos

10. You and Maria are good friends, they/you/we are very kind
    Tú y Maria son buenas amigas, ellas/ustedes/nosotras son muy amables

Exercise 2: Fill in the blanks:

1. We are brothers
   _________ somos hermanos

2. I am not Argentinian, I am Chilean
   ________ no soy argentina, ______ soy chilena

3. Are you in Spanish class together?
   ¿________ están en la clase de español juntos?

4. Maria is not in the park, she is at her friend’s house
   Maria no está en el parque, _______ está en la casa de su amigo

1. We are not Australians, we are Americans
   ___________ no somos australianas, ___________ somos americanas

5. Maria and Juan are brothers, they are very intelligent and they live together
   Maria y Juan son hermanos, _________ son muy inteligentes y ________ viven juntos

Note: The answers are at the end of the article.

Final words

Congratulations, you made it!

You now know everything you should about subject pronouns! 

Finally, Spanish teachers worth your time!

Experience the LingoToGo difference for yourself with a free week of unlimited lessons.

Expert teachers, raving students, guaranteed fun.

Answers

Here are the answers to the subject pronoun exercises in this article.

Exercise 1: Choose the correct Spanish subject pronoun for the following sentences:

1. I want a coffee, please
   Yo quiero un café, por favor

2. Sara is Colombian, she is very pretty
   Sara es colombiana, ella es muy bonita

3. We are in a Spanish school
   Nosotros estamos en una escuela de español

4. I went to the party, what did you do?
   Yo fui a la fiesta, ¿ustedes qué hicieron?

5. Luis is not Mexican, he is from Guatemala
   Luis no es mexicano, él es de Guatemala

6. Do you want to eat an apple? I don’t want to, thank you
   ¿Quieres comer una manzana? Yo no quiero, gracias

7. Juan doesn’t want to study Portuguese, he wants to study Spanish
   Juan no quiere estudiar portugués, él quiere estudiar español

8. Ana and I are going to Madrid tomorrow, we are very happy
   Ana y yo vamos a Madrid mañana, nosotras estamos muy felices

9. Luis, Mario and Carlos are friends, they go to university together
   Luis, Mario y Carlos son amigos, ellos van a la universidad juntos

10. You and Maria are good friends, you are very kind
    Tú y Maria son buenas amigas, ustedes son muy amables

Exercise 2: Fill in the blanks:

1. We are brothers
   Nosotros somos hermanos

2. I am not Argentinian, I am Chilean
   Yo no soy argentina, yo soy chilena

3. Are you in Spanish class together?
   ¿Ustedes están en la clase de español juntos?

4. Maria is not in the park, she is at her friend’s house
   Maria no está en el parque, ella está en la casa de su amigo

5. We are not Australians, we are Americans
   Nosotras no somos australianas, nosotras somos americanas

6. Maria and Juan are brothers, they are very intelligent and they live together
   Maria y Juan son hermanos, ellos son muy inteligentes y ellos viven juntos