Hola, I'm Jordan and this is a Spanish Quickie--fast, easy Spanish lessons from somebody who speaks
your language.
In this video, we're going to start to get into the “meat and potatoes” of Spanish
and go over the personal pronouns.
You know: I, you, he/she, we, they... that stuff.
Personal pronouns in Spanish are pretty easy and straightforward.
The words are small and they work generally the way they do in English.
But there are a couple common pitfalls for gringos like you and me.
Formal/Informal, Latin America vs Spain.
But don’t worry, that’s what we’re here to talk about today.
Let’s jump right in.
Here you see a typical conjugation chart filled with the English personal pronouns.
What’s that?
Could I explain the chart?
No, I’m sorry I can’t.
If you don’t understand what’s going on this chart, please go back and watch the video
called The Spanish Infinitive & Conjugation.
I don’t want to waste everybody’s else’s time because you didn’t watch that video
like I told you to.
A**hole.
Okay, here’s a conjugation chart filled with all the English personal pronouns.
Like I said in the opener, personal pronouns generally work in Spanish like they do in
English.
You can say “The pizza is good.”
but if it’s already apparent to those you’re talking to, that you’re speaking of the
pizza, you can just say “It is good.”
“It” instead of “the pizza”.
“I”is probably the most common personal pronoun you use because there’s really not
another way to say yourself.
“Jordan is talking.”
I don’t think so.
“I am talking.”
“I” is “yo” in Spanish.
If you’ve never seen this before, it might seem strange at first because it’s just
Y-O, “yo”.
But I promise, you’ll get used to it quickly and if you think about it, “I” is pretty
weird itself.
Then “you” (singular, since we’re on the left side here) is “tú”.
I find that to be incredibly easy, since “tú” sounds so much like “you”.
Then “he”is “él” and “she” is “ella”.
“Él” and “ella” can also both mean “it”, so be ready to see that, but in
the end, it’s pretty rare.
Okay, going to the plural side here, “we” is “nosotros”.
I remember that was quite weird for me at first.
I don’t know why.
Maybe because it’s such a long word for our little word “we”.
Or maybe just because it’s kind of a weird word.
Regardless, “we” is “nosotros”.
Then “you” (plural) is “vosotros” or “vosotras”.
If you both are boys, it’s “vosotros”.
If you both are girls, it’s “vosotras”.
If one of you is a boy and one of you is a girl, it’s “vosotros”.
But at the beginning if you confuse the masculine/feminine thing, it usually doesn’t matter.
Then in this last spot, “ellos” is “they” for boys and “ellas” is “they” for
girls.
Just like vosotros/vosotras, if it’s a mixed group, you go with the masculine version,
“ellos”.
That’s simple, no?
Just memorize those words and you’re good.
Well, it’s time to rain on your parade.
The biggest pitfall is the formal/informal situation.
We don’t have anything like this in English, but in Spanish, they have two versions of
“you”.
One is informal, the other is formal.
The words I just taught you, tú/vosotros/vostras are the informal words.
The formal version of you (singular) is “usted” and the formal version of “you” (plural)
is “ustedes”.
Not difficult words to learn, just a bit of a pain in the butt at first, because there’s
two different kinds of “you’s”
In Latin America, they generally use “usted” and “ustedes”.
So if you plan on using your Spanish only in Latin America, it’s easier to just go
with “usted” and “ustedes” every single time.
In fact, no matter where you are, that’s the safe way.
You can never have too much respect.
In Latin America, they also use the word “tú”.
That means “you” normal or informal, remember?
They just use it less often than in Spain.
But in Latin America, they NEVER EVER use “vosotros” or “vosotras”.
Unless they’re making fun of people...or trying to talk like “Old English”.
It’s an old, traditional form that’s never used in Latin America.
Now, in Spain, things are a lot more informal generally.
In Spain, they usually use “tú” and “vosotros”--the informal words.
But they also use “usted” and “ustedes”, it’s just reserved to show more respect--for
older people for sure.
If you say “you” with “usted” instead of “tú”, it’s kind of like building
“sir” into it.
So “tú” is just “you”.
But “usted” is basically “you sir”.
Now, I’m purposely avoiding giving you any specific verb conjugations in Spanish so far
because, it can get pretty confusing pretty fast...and to be honest, at the beginning,
as long as you have the personal pronouns correct, you don’t even have to conjugate
the verb at all.
That might sound crazy, that verb conjugation doesn’t really matter that much at the beginning.
But if you just say the personal pronoun and the verb in any form, you’ll almost always
be understood.
It might be clunky and ugly, but it’ll get the job done, and we’ll smoothen it out
in upcoming videos.
Right now, your mission, is to go memorize those ten personal pronouns utilizing The
Flashcard Strategy.
If you don’t know what that is, then watch the video called The Flashcard Strategy.
It will get you high.
The ten words you need to memorize for this lesson are listed nicely for you at gringoespanol.com/personal-pronouns.
So go there now and make your flashcards.
That link is also below this video.
Ten words.
It doesn’t take long, and by adding these ten words to your arsenale, you’re increasing
your Spanish powers immensely.
We are getting somewhere.
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I’ll see you next time.
Hasta luego.