Spanish pronouns
Encyclopedia
The Spanish language
has a range of pronoun
s that in some ways work quite differently from English ones. In particular, subject pronouns are often omitted, and object pronouns usually precede the verb.
Ladino or Judaeo-Spanish
, spoken by Sephardic Jews
, is different from Latin American and Peninsular Spanish in that it retains rather archaic formations and usage of personal pronouns.
With regard to pronouns, Latin American Spanish differs from Peninsular Spanish mainly in the usage of vos in some areas and in the lack of vosotros, among other things. Note that Ladino and Latin American Spanish (like most other "colonial" speech) tend to be conservative in its structural changes compared with that of the country of origin. The next section explains their usage.
Subject personal pronouns are usually omitted in both spoken and written language, as the grammatical person and number of the subject are explicit in the verb form. For this reason Spanish is considered a "pro-drop language
". Nevertheless, subject pronouns are used for emphasis or contrast, or to avoid ambiguity.
Notes:
Nominative case
(subject, stressed)
Accusative case
(direct object, unstressed, but see below for direct objects preceded by preposition "a")
Dative case
(indirect object, unstressed, but see below for indirect objects preceded by preposition "a")
Prepositional case
(objects and complements preceded by prepositions, except for preposition "con", stressed)
Observe that for direct and indirect objects, when they are preceded by the preposition a the pronoun will be in the prepositional case instead of in the accusative or dative. Thus, "I saw her" becomes La vi a ella and "He gave it to me" becomes Me lo dio a mí (see also clitic doubling
for the use of reduplicated pronouns).
Comitative case
(prepositional complement preceded by the preposition "con" (with), stressed)
When the preposition is con, the first, second and third person singular take the following forms:
The other persons do not have distinct comitative case forms and simply take the prepositional case preceded by "con" (e.g., con nosotros, con vosotras, con ella, con ellos...). The plural first and second person forms, connosco and convosco, are archaic forms no longer in use but some vestiges may be found in Ladino
variants.
Genitive case
(possessive)
Adjectival forms (cf. English my, your), unstressed:
Pronominal forms (cf. English mine, yours), stressed:
The clitic pronouns, whether enclitic or proclitic, normally cluster in the same order: dative clitics precede accusative clitics, se is in the front always, then follow second persons, then first persons and third persons are always last; furthermore, in a sequence of two third-pronominal object clitics, the dative one must always be se (e.g. Juan se lo mandó "Juan sent it to him").
" is used by some Latin Americans, particularly in Central America, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, the state of Zulia in Venezuela, and the Andean regions of Colombia, Bolivia, Perú, Ecuador and Chile. There it can be used with the same treatment that "tú" is used (informal and intimate) or in some areas, it is employed among equals but not to very close people (couples or family) or to "inferiors" (children, animals etc.), where the pronoun "tú" would normally be used.
Ladino
speakers use "vos" as well, only that they employ it with the same treatment as "usted" is used. In fact, Ladino speakers do not use "usted" at all because "vos" implies the same respect that it once had in Old Spanish. In Ladino, "tú" is used towards anyone in an informal manner.
and Venezuela
. Other speakers consider it archaic because it is an older form of a contraction of vuestra merced. In Colombia, it is not unusual to hear people use "su merced" interchangeably with usted. It can be used as a vocative
as well, e.g. when speaking to an older person, as in "Su merced, ¿por qué no vienen vusted y sus nietos a mi casa esta tarde?"
Vuestra merced (literally 'your mercy') is the origin of usted, usarcé and similar forms that govern third-person verb forms with a second-person function. They are mostly confined to period works now.
It is unlikely that similar-sounding Arabic ustādh ('professor') was involved in the formation of Spanish usted, given the weakness of the semantic link and the fact that usted is not documented before 1598 (see the online Corpus del Español) — over a century after the fall of Moorish Granada
.
Among the former colonies of the Spanish Empire
, only in the Philippines and Equatorial Guinea
is the use of vosotros and its normal conjugations retained.
It is used as the second person, familiar plural for most people in Spain, except in some southwestern regions and in most of the Canary Islands, and is the only form used by the Sephardic Jews that speak Ladino.
.
In Chavacano
, spoken in the Philippines, vo is used alongside tu as a singular second-person pronoun in Zamboangueño, Caviteño, and Ternateño. In Zamboangueño, evos is also used. For the plural, Zamboangueño has vosotros while Caviteño has vusos. Papiamento
, spoken in Aruba
, Bonaire, and Curaçao
, maintains boso (singular) and bosonan (plural). Since it was used with slaves, the forms that seemed disrespectful in the rest of America were common.
, where it is concords in first person singular.
In Spanish slang, el menda / la menda can be used as an emphatic I, concording with a third person verb, but its use is receding.
. This is a reasonable generalisation given that it is true in over ninety percent of cases in over ninety of the Spanish-speaking world. However, it is helpful to take note of the various exceptions to this general rule whereby le/les rather than lo, la, los, las are used. Note however that this use is rather modern and often found only in part of Spain whereas the use of lo, la, los, las is considered more traditional.
a) Masculine e
There is a strong tendency in Spanish, inherited from Latin, for pronouns and determiners to have a set of three different endings for the three genders. These are: -e or ∅ for masculine pronouns, -a for feminine pronouns and -o for neuter pronouns.
Thus, éste, ésta, esto; ése, ésa, eso; aquél, aquélla, aquello; el, la, lo; él, ella, ello.
In this context, it would make sense to say le vi "I saw him" for any masculine noun, la vi "I saw her/it" for any feminine noun, and lo vi "I saw it" when no noun is being referred to. The use of "le" as the direct object pronoun is only used in Spain and it can only mean "him" Le vi. Use "lo" for things. ¿Tienes tu libro? Sí, lo tengo.
This gives us a set like the above: le, la, lo.
b) Indirectness for humans — general
Spanish has a tendency, discussed at Spanish prepositions, to treat as indirect objects those direct objects which happen to refer to people. In this context, it would make sense to say le/les vi "I saw him/her/them" when referring to people and lo/la/los/las vi "I saw it/them" when referring to things.
b1) Indirectness for humans — respect for the interlocutor
The general tendency to use indirect objects for people is intensified when the speaker wishes to convey respect. The third person in Spanish can be used as the second person to mean "you". In this context, it would make sense to use lo/la/los/las vi "I saw him/her/it/them" when one is speaking about a third party or an object, but le/les vi "I saw you" when the pronoun is intended to represent usted/ustedes.
b2) Indirectness for humans — contrast with inanimate things
The general tendency to use indirect objects for people is intensified when the subject of the sentence is not human, thus creating a contrast in the mind of the speaker between the human and the thing. In this context, it would make sense to say la halagó "he flattered her" when the subject is "he" referring to a person, but le halagó "it flattered her" when the subject is "it", a thing.
b3) Indirectness for humans — humanity otherwise emphasised
The general tendency to use indirect objects for people is intensified when the humanity of the person who is the object of the sentence is emphasised by the way the verb is used. In this context, it would make sense for a subtle distinction to be made between lo llevamos al hospital "we took/carried him to the hospital" when the patient is unconscious and le llevamos al hospital "we took/led him to the hospital" when the patient is able to walk.
b4) Indirectness for humans — with impersonal se
The general tendency to use indirect objects for people is intensified when impersonal se is used instead of a real subject. This is to avoid the misinterpretation of the se as being an indirect object pronoun. In this context, it would make sense to say se le lee mucho "people read him/her a lot" if "se" means "people" and "le" means "him/her", and reserve se lo/la lee mucho "he/she reads it a lot for him/her" for sentences in which the "se" is not impersonal.
Extreme preference for le/les is a dialectalism known as leísmo
; however, not all use of direct-object le/les is dialectal. Some instances of it are universal across the educated Spanish-speaking world.
Let us first look at dialectal extremes. There is leísmo (covered under point a above) motivated by the tendency towards masculine e in uneducated Madrid speech. This actually used to be quite standard, and the Real Academia only stopped endorsing it in the 1850s. We therefore find in old texts:
Such speakers would say le afirman in reference to a word like el hecho, la afirman in reference to a word like la verdad, and lo afirman only in reference to a general neuter "it".
The second extreme leísmo is the one motivated by the second point mentioned: the tendency to use indirect objects for people. This is noticeable in Northwestern Spain, especially Navarre
and the Basque Country
, where regional speech uses le vi for "I saw him/her" and lo/la vi for "I saw it". The same phenomenon is sporadically heard elsewhere, e.g. in Valencia and Paraguay
.
Now let us look at less extremely dialectal cases. For the majority of educated speakers in Spain and parts of Latin America, neither of the two tendencies (a or b) is enough on its own to justify the use of le/les; but together they are. Thus, speakers who would reject sentences like le vi for "I saw it" and le vi for "I saw her" would nevertheless accept and use le vi for "I saw him". Indeed, this use of le to mean "him" is so common in standard Castilian
speech that some would call the use of lo vi to mean "I saw him" an example of loísmo/laísmo
, i.e. the dialectalism whereby lo is overused. The Real Academia's current line is that le for "him" is officially "tolerated".
A case on which the Academy is silent is the tendency described in point b1. It is perfectly common in educated speech in many parts of the world to distinguish between no quería molestarlo "I did not mean to bother him" and no quería molestarle "I did not mean to bother you". Those Spaniards who would not just say le anyway for the reasons explained in the last paragraph are likely to use le in this case. Butt & Benjamin (1994) says that their Argentine informants made this distinction, whereas their loísta Colombian informants preferred molestarlo always.
The Academy is also silent on the tendency described in b2; however, it is universal across the Spanish-speaking world. In a questionnaire given to 28 Spaniards in the Madrid region, 90% preferred la halagó for "he flattered her" and 87% preferred le halagó for "it flattered her". García (1975) reports a similar but less extreme tendency in Buenos Aires: only 14% of García's sample said él le convenció for "he convinced him" (the rest said él lo convenció). With an inanimate subject, a slight majority (54%) said este color no le convence.
García reports Buenos Aires natives differentiating between lo llevaron al hospital and le llevaron al hospital depending on how active the patient is, although anecdotal evidence suggests that Argentines are more loísta than this, and would prefer lo in both cases.
Point b3 is also backed up by the fact that many Latin Americans distinguish between le quiero "I love him" and lo quiero "I want him" (or indeed "I want it").
With para
N.B.: According to a decision of the Real Academia from the 1960s, the accents on these forms are only to be used when necessary to avoid ambiguity with the demonstrative determiners
. However, the normal educated standard is still as above. Foreign learners may safely adhere to either standard.
Note also that there is never an accent on the neuter forms esto, eso and aquello (which do not have determiner equivalents).
in Spanish is que, from the Latin QVID.
Others include el cual, quien and donde.
In some people's style of speaking, this definite article may be omitted after a, con and de, particularly when the antecedent is abstract or neuter:
After en, the article tends to be omitted if precise spatial location is not intended.
Splitting "lo que" and adding an adjective in between changes the meaning slightly.
It has the following forms: el cual, la cual, los cuales, las cuales and the neuter lo cual.
When used for direct objects, the personal a is required if the antecedent is human.
First, it can be purely a matter of high style. This is used sparingly in Spanish, and so foreigners should avoid over-using it.
In more everyday style, this might be phrased as:
Second, el cual is often preferred after propositions of more than syllable (para, contra, entre, mediante...) and after prepositional phrases (a pesar de, debajo de, a causa de, frente a, en virtud de, gracias a, por consecuencia de...).
Third, el cual is preferred when it is separated from its antecedent by intervening words. The more words that intervene, the more the use of el cual is practically obligatory.
It too can replace [el] que in certain circumstances. Like the English pronouns "who" and "whom", it can only be used to refer to people.
It is invariable for gender, and was originally invariable for number. However, by analogy with other words, the form quienes was invented. Quien as a plural form survives as an archaism that is now considered non-standard.
Unlike el cual, it does not indicate gender, but it does indicate number, and also specifies that a person is referred to.
The tendence goes forward with the vulgar form ande (from adonde) often used for "where".
In the Ladino dialect of Spanish, the pronoun onde is still used, where donde still means "whence" or "where from". In Latin America, isolated communities or rural areas still retain this as well.
Como is from QVOMODO, "how", the ablative of QVID MODVS, "what way".
Cuando is from QVANDO, "when".
Adonde is a variant that can be used when motion to the location is intended.
Note that for some reason mismo tends to require que:
Non-defining:
Defining:
Note that just que, or at the most en que, is normal with defining clauses referring to time. En el que and cuando are rarer.
We can see in the above example that the gender and number of "cuyo" have changed to "cuyas" in order to match the condition of the following word, "calificaciones" (f. pl.)
In Old Spanish there were interrogative forms, cúyo, cúyas, and cúyos, no longer used.
In practice, cuyo is reserved to formal language. A periphrasis like Alejandro es un estudiante que tiene unas calificaciones siempre buenas. is more common.
Cuyo is from CVIVS, the genitive (possessive) form of QVI.
For example-
"¿Qué es esto?" - "What is this?"
"Ese es el libro que me diste." - "That is the book that you gave me."
In the second line, que was helping to answer for what Qué was asking, a definition of "this".
Below is a list of interrogative pronouns and phrases with the relative pronouns that go with them.
Some transitive verbs can take on a reflexive meaning, such as lavar (to wash) and lavarse (to wash oneself). Other verbs have reflexive forms which do not take on a reflexive meaning, such as ir (to go) and irse (to go away). Some verbs only have reflexive forms, such as jactarse (to boast).
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
has a range of pronoun
Pronoun
In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun , such as, in English, the words it and he...
s that in some ways work quite differently from English ones. In particular, subject pronouns are often omitted, and object pronouns usually precede the verb.
Personal pronouns
The table below shows a cumulative list of personal pronouns from Peninsular, Latin American and Ladino Spanish.Ladino or Judaeo-Spanish
Judaeo-Spanish
Judaeo-Spanish , in Israel commonly referred to as Ladino, and known locally as Judezmo, Djudeo-Espanyol, Djudezmo, Djudeo-Kasteyano, Spaniolit and other names, is a Romance language derived from Old Spanish...
, spoken by Sephardic Jews
Sephardi Jews
Sephardi Jews is a general term referring to the descendants of the Jews who lived in the Iberian Peninsula before their expulsion in the Spanish Inquisition. It can also refer to those who use a Sephardic style of liturgy or would otherwise define themselves in terms of the Jewish customs and...
, is different from Latin American and Peninsular Spanish in that it retains rather archaic formations and usage of personal pronouns.
With regard to pronouns, Latin American Spanish differs from Peninsular Spanish mainly in the usage of vos in some areas and in the lack of vosotros, among other things. Note that Ladino and Latin American Spanish (like most other "colonial" speech) tend to be conservative in its structural changes compared with that of the country of origin. The next section explains their usage.
Subject personal pronouns are usually omitted in both spoken and written language, as the grammatical person and number of the subject are explicit in the verb form. For this reason Spanish is considered a "pro-drop language
Pro-drop language
A pro-drop language is a language in which certain classes of pronouns may be omitted when they are in some sense pragmatically inferable...
". Nevertheless, subject pronouns are used for emphasis or contrast, or to avoid ambiguity.
Table of personal pronouns
| Number | Person | Nominative | Accusative | Dative | Prepositional | Comitative |
| Singular | 1st | yo | me | me | mí | conmigo |
| 2nd | tú | te | te | ti | contigo | |
| vos | te/os/vos | te/os/vos | vos | con vos | ||
| 3rd | él, ella, ello, usted/vusted (archaic) | se, lo, la | se, le | sí, él, ella, ello | con él/ella/usted, etc. / consigo | |
| Plural | 1st | nosotros, nosotras | nos | nos | nosotros, nosotras | con nosotros/nosotras / connosco (archaic) |
| 2nd | vosotros, vosotras | os | os | vosotros, vosotras | con vosotros/vosotras / convosco (archaic) | |
| 3rd | ellos, ellas, ustedes/vustedes (archaic) | se, los, las | se, les | sí, ellos, ellas | con ellos/ellas/ustedes, etc. |
Notes:
- Consigo can also be translated as "I get", from the Spanish verb "conseguir". However, consigo is only used reflexively, unlike conmigo and contigo.
- Se is used only as a reflexive pronoun as in "Él se lava" (He washes himself), the subject of an indefinite construction of the passive voice as in "Se dice" (It is said), and as an indirect object if the same sentence contains a direct object pronoun as well: "Se lo di" (I gave it to him/her).
Nominative case
Nominative case
The nominative case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or the predicate noun or predicate adjective, as opposed to its object or other verb arguments...
(subject, stressed)
- yo, tú, vos, usted/vusted (archaic), él/ella/ello, nosotros/nosotras, vosotros/vosotras, ustedes/vustedes (archaic), ellos/ellas
Accusative case
Accusative case
The accusative case of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. The same case is used in many languages for the objects of prepositions...
(direct object, unstressed, but see below for direct objects preceded by preposition "a")
- me, te, lo/la, nos, os/vos, los/las
Dative case
Dative case
The dative case is a grammatical case generally used to indicate the noun to whom something is given, as in "George gave Jamie a drink"....
(indirect object, unstressed, but see below for indirect objects preceded by preposition "a")
- me, te, le/se, nos, os/vos, les/se
Prepositional case
Prepositional case
Prepositional case is a grammatical case that marks the object of a preposition. This term can be used in languages where nouns have a declensional form that appears exclusively in combination with certain prepositions...
(objects and complements preceded by prepositions, except for preposition "con", stressed)
- mí, ti, vos, él/ella/ello/sí, nosotros/nosotras/nos, vosotros/vosotras/vos, ellos/ellas/sí
Observe that for direct and indirect objects, when they are preceded by the preposition a the pronoun will be in the prepositional case instead of in the accusative or dative. Thus, "I saw her" becomes La vi a ella and "He gave it to me" becomes Me lo dio a mí (see also clitic doubling
Clitic doubling
In linguistics, clitic doubling, or pronominal reduplication is a phenomenon by which clitic pronouns appear in verb phrases together with the full noun phrases that they refer to .Clitic doubling is found in many languages, including Albanian, Arumanian, Macedonian, Bulgarian,...
for the use of reduplicated pronouns).
Comitative case
Comitative case
The comitative case , also known as the associative case , is a grammatical case that denotes companionship, and is used where English would use "in company with" or "together with"...
(prepositional complement preceded by the preposition "con" (with), stressed)
When the preposition is con, the first, second and third person singular take the following forms:
- *con mí → conmigo = "with me"
- *con ti → contigo = "with you"
- *con sí → consigo = "with yourself(formal)/himself/herself/itself" (reflexive)
The other persons do not have distinct comitative case forms and simply take the prepositional case preceded by "con" (e.g., con nosotros, con vosotras, con ella, con ellos...). The plural first and second person forms, connosco and convosco, are archaic forms no longer in use but some vestiges may be found in Ladino
Judaeo-Spanish
Judaeo-Spanish , in Israel commonly referred to as Ladino, and known locally as Judezmo, Djudeo-Espanyol, Djudezmo, Djudeo-Kasteyano, Spaniolit and other names, is a Romance language derived from Old Spanish...
variants.
Genitive case
Genitive case
In grammar, genitive is the grammatical case that marks a noun as modifying another noun...
(possessive)
Adjectival forms (cf. English my, your), unstressed:
- mi / mis
- tu / tus
- su / sus
- nuestro / nuestra / nuestros / nuestras
- vuestro / vuestra / vuestros / vuestras
- su / sus
Pronominal forms (cf. English mine, yours), stressed:
- mío / mía / míos / mías
- tuyo / tuya / tuyos / tuyas
- suyo / suya / suyos / suyas
- nuestro / nuestra / nuestros / nuestras
- vuestro / vuestra / vuestros / vuestras
- suyo / suya / suyos / suyas
The clitic pronouns, whether enclitic or proclitic, normally cluster in the same order: dative clitics precede accusative clitics, se is in the front always, then follow second persons, then first persons and third persons are always last; furthermore, in a sequence of two third-pronominal object clitics, the dative one must always be se (e.g. Juan se lo mandó "Juan sent it to him").
Voseo
The pronoun "vosVoseo
Voseo is the use of the second person singular pronoun vos in many dialects of Spanish. In dialects that have it, it is used either instead of tú, or alongside it....
" is used by some Latin Americans, particularly in Central America, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, the state of Zulia in Venezuela, and the Andean regions of Colombia, Bolivia, Perú, Ecuador and Chile. There it can be used with the same treatment that "tú" is used (informal and intimate) or in some areas, it is employed among equals but not to very close people (couples or family) or to "inferiors" (children, animals etc.), where the pronoun "tú" would normally be used.
Ladino
Judaeo-Spanish
Judaeo-Spanish , in Israel commonly referred to as Ladino, and known locally as Judezmo, Djudeo-Espanyol, Djudezmo, Djudeo-Kasteyano, Spaniolit and other names, is a Romance language derived from Old Spanish...
speakers use "vos" as well, only that they employ it with the same treatment as "usted" is used. In fact, Ladino speakers do not use "usted" at all because "vos" implies the same respect that it once had in Old Spanish. In Ladino, "tú" is used towards anyone in an informal manner.
The use of vusted and vuestra merced
The variant vusted/vustedes is mostly a regionalism of some South American countries. It is common to hear it in isolated areas of ColombiaColombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
and Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
. Other speakers consider it archaic because it is an older form of a contraction of vuestra merced. In Colombia, it is not unusual to hear people use "su merced" interchangeably with usted. It can be used as a vocative
Vocative case
The vocative case is the case used for a noun identifying the person being addressed and/or occasionally the determiners of that noun. A vocative expression is an expression of direct address, wherein the identity of the party being spoken to is set forth expressly within a sentence...
as well, e.g. when speaking to an older person, as in "Su merced, ¿por qué no vienen vusted y sus nietos a mi casa esta tarde?"
Vuestra merced (literally 'your mercy') is the origin of usted, usarcé and similar forms that govern third-person verb forms with a second-person function. They are mostly confined to period works now.
It is unlikely that similar-sounding Arabic ustādh ('professor') was involved in the formation of Spanish usted, given the weakness of the semantic link and the fact that usted is not documented before 1598 (see the online Corpus del Español) — over a century after the fall of Moorish Granada
Emirate of Granada
The Emirate of Granada , also known as the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada , was an emirate established in 1238 following the defeat of Muhammad an-Nasir of the Almohad dynasty by an alliance of Christian kingdoms at the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212...
.
The use of vosotros
The pronoun vosotros is completely absent in Latin America except among some speakers of Ladino, or written legal language, in countries like Venezuela, Curaçao, Cuba, Mexico, or Argentina.Among the former colonies of the Spanish Empire
Spanish Empire
The Spanish Empire comprised territories and colonies administered directly by Spain in Europe, in America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. It originated during the Age of Exploration and was therefore one of the first global empires. At the time of Habsburgs, Spain reached the peak of its world power....
, only in the Philippines and Equatorial Guinea
Equatoguinean Spanish
Equatoguinean Spanish is the variety of Spanish spoken in Equatorial Guinea. This is the only Spanish variety that is official in Sub-Saharan Africa. It is spoken by about 90% of the population, estimated at 1,170,308 for the year 2010 , all of them second-language speakers...
is the use of vosotros and its normal conjugations retained.
It is used as the second person, familiar plural for most people in Spain, except in some southwestern regions and in most of the Canary Islands, and is the only form used by the Sephardic Jews that speak Ladino.
Creoles
Forms based on vosotros and vos are used in many Spanish-based creole languagesSpanish-based Creole languages
-Chavacano:Chavacano is a Spanish-based Creole language and the name of the Six Dialects of Spanish evolved words turned into a Creole language spoken in the Philippines...
.
In Chavacano
Chavacano language
Chavacano or Chabacano, sometimes referred to by linguists as Philippine Creole Spanish, is a Spanish-based creole language spoken in the Philippines...
, spoken in the Philippines, vo is used alongside tu as a singular second-person pronoun in Zamboangueño, Caviteño, and Ternateño. In Zamboangueño, evos is also used. For the plural, Zamboangueño has vosotros while Caviteño has vusos. Papiamento
Papiamento
Papiamento is the most widely spoken language on the Caribbean ABC islands, having the official status on the islands of Aruba and Curaçao. The language is also recognized on Bonaire by the Dutch government....
, spoken in Aruba
Aruba
Aruba is a 33 km-long island of the Lesser Antilles in the southern Caribbean Sea, located 27 km north of the coast of Venezuela and 130 km east of Guajira Peninsula...
, Bonaire, and Curaçao
Curaçao
Curaçao is an island in the southern Caribbean Sea, off the Venezuelan coast. The Country of Curaçao , which includes the main island plus the small, uninhabited island of Klein Curaçao , is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands...
, maintains boso (singular) and bosonan (plural). Since it was used with slaves, the forms that seemed disrespectful in the rest of America were common.
Menda
Menda is the equivalent of I in CalóCalo
Calo, Caló, or Calò may refer to:* Caló language, the language of the Iberian Romani**Iberian Kale :***Romani people in Spain, more frequently called gitanos***Romani people in Portugal, more frequently called ciganos...
, where it is concords in first person singular.
In Spanish slang, el menda / la menda can be used as an emphatic I, concording with a third person verb, but its use is receding.
The use of le/les
The pronouns le (singular) and les (plural) are used to replace the indirect object of a sentence. In some dialects, le can be used for the plural, too. As an exception, when the direct object is also replaced by a pronoun (lo/los, la/las) the indirect object is replaced by the pronoun se, in both singular and plural.- Le di el libro. = "I gave the book to her/him."
- Se lo di. = "I gave it to her/him."
Direct-object le/les
Generally, the unstressed third-person object pronouns in Spanish are lo, la, los, las. This is the current position of the Real Academia EspañolaReal Academia Española
The Royal Spanish Academy is the official royal institution responsible for regulating the Spanish language. It is based in Madrid, Spain, but is affiliated with national language academies in twenty-one other hispanophone nations through the Association of Spanish Language Academies...
. This is a reasonable generalisation given that it is true in over ninety percent of cases in over ninety of the Spanish-speaking world. However, it is helpful to take note of the various exceptions to this general rule whereby le/les rather than lo, la, los, las are used. Note however that this use is rather modern and often found only in part of Spain whereas the use of lo, la, los, las is considered more traditional.
Theoretical basis for the use of direct-object le/les
There are various diachronic and synchronic reasons for the use of le/les for direct objects. To understand why there is vacillation and hesitation in usage, it is helpful to understand these often-conflicting linguistic forces.a) Masculine e
There is a strong tendency in Spanish, inherited from Latin, for pronouns and determiners to have a set of three different endings for the three genders. These are: -e or ∅ for masculine pronouns, -a for feminine pronouns and -o for neuter pronouns.
Thus, éste, ésta, esto; ése, ésa, eso; aquél, aquélla, aquello; el, la, lo; él, ella, ello.
In this context, it would make sense to say le vi "I saw him" for any masculine noun, la vi "I saw her/it" for any feminine noun, and lo vi "I saw it" when no noun is being referred to. The use of "le" as the direct object pronoun is only used in Spain and it can only mean "him" Le vi. Use "lo" for things. ¿Tienes tu libro? Sí, lo tengo.
This gives us a set like the above: le, la, lo.
b) Indirectness for humans — general
Spanish has a tendency, discussed at Spanish prepositions, to treat as indirect objects those direct objects which happen to refer to people. In this context, it would make sense to say le/les vi "I saw him/her/them" when referring to people and lo/la/los/las vi "I saw it/them" when referring to things.
b1) Indirectness for humans — respect for the interlocutor
The general tendency to use indirect objects for people is intensified when the speaker wishes to convey respect. The third person in Spanish can be used as the second person to mean "you". In this context, it would make sense to use lo/la/los/las vi "I saw him/her/it/them" when one is speaking about a third party or an object, but le/les vi "I saw you" when the pronoun is intended to represent usted/ustedes.
b2) Indirectness for humans — contrast with inanimate things
The general tendency to use indirect objects for people is intensified when the subject of the sentence is not human, thus creating a contrast in the mind of the speaker between the human and the thing. In this context, it would make sense to say la halagó "he flattered her" when the subject is "he" referring to a person, but le halagó "it flattered her" when the subject is "it", a thing.
b3) Indirectness for humans — humanity otherwise emphasised
The general tendency to use indirect objects for people is intensified when the humanity of the person who is the object of the sentence is emphasised by the way the verb is used. In this context, it would make sense for a subtle distinction to be made between lo llevamos al hospital "we took/carried him to the hospital" when the patient is unconscious and le llevamos al hospital "we took/led him to the hospital" when the patient is able to walk.
b4) Indirectness for humans — with impersonal se
The general tendency to use indirect objects for people is intensified when impersonal se is used instead of a real subject. This is to avoid the misinterpretation of the se as being an indirect object pronoun. In this context, it would make sense to say se le lee mucho "people read him/her a lot" if "se" means "people" and "le" means "him/her", and reserve se lo/la lee mucho "he/she reads it a lot for him/her" for sentences in which the "se" is not impersonal.
Direct-object le/les in practice
All of the theoretical reasons for using le/les detailed above actually influence the way Spanish speakers use these pronouns, and this has been demonstrated by various surveys and investigations.Extreme preference for le/les is a dialectalism known as leísmo
Leísmo
Leísmo is a dialectal variation in the Spanish language that occurs largely in Spain. It involves using the indirect object pronoun le in place of the masculine direct object pronoun lo, especially when the direct object refers to a male person.Leísmo with animate objects is both common and...
; however, not all use of direct-object le/les is dialectal. Some instances of it are universal across the educated Spanish-speaking world.
Let us first look at dialectal extremes. There is leísmo (covered under point a above) motivated by the tendency towards masculine e in uneducated Madrid speech. This actually used to be quite standard, and the Real Academia only stopped endorsing it in the 1850s. We therefore find in old texts:
- Unos niegan el hecho, otros le afirman = "Some deny the fact; others assert it" (B. FeijooFeijóoFeijóo is an Galician family name.People with surname or its variants include:* Benito Jerónimo Feijóo y Montenegro, Spanish scholar.* Alberto Núñez Feijóo, Spanish politician....
, mid-eighteenth century)
Such speakers would say le afirman in reference to a word like el hecho, la afirman in reference to a word like la verdad, and lo afirman only in reference to a general neuter "it".
The second extreme leísmo is the one motivated by the second point mentioned: the tendency to use indirect objects for people. This is noticeable in Northwestern Spain, especially Navarre
Navarre
Navarre , officially the Chartered Community of Navarre is an autonomous community in northern Spain, bordering the Basque Country, La Rioja, and Aragon in Spain and Aquitaine in France...
and the Basque Country
Basque Country (autonomous community)
The Basque Country is an autonomous community of northern Spain. It includes the Basque provinces of Álava, Biscay and Gipuzkoa, also called Historical Territories....
, where regional speech uses le vi for "I saw him/her" and lo/la vi for "I saw it". The same phenomenon is sporadically heard elsewhere, e.g. in Valencia and Paraguay
Paraguay
Paraguay , officially the Republic of Paraguay , is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. Paraguay lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the...
.
Now let us look at less extremely dialectal cases. For the majority of educated speakers in Spain and parts of Latin America, neither of the two tendencies (a or b) is enough on its own to justify the use of le/les; but together they are. Thus, speakers who would reject sentences like le vi for "I saw it" and le vi for "I saw her" would nevertheless accept and use le vi for "I saw him". Indeed, this use of le to mean "him" is so common in standard Castilian
Castilian Spanish
Castilian Spanish is a term related to the Spanish language, but its exact meaning can vary even in that language. In English Castilian Spanish usually refers to the variety of European Spanish spoken in north and central Spain or as the language standard for radio and TV speakers...
speech that some would call the use of lo vi to mean "I saw him" an example of loísmo/laísmo
Loísmo
Loísmo, with its feminine counterpart laísmo, is a feature of certain dialects of Spanish consisting of the use of the pronouns lo or la in place of the pronoun le...
, i.e. the dialectalism whereby lo is overused. The Real Academia's current line is that le for "him" is officially "tolerated".
A case on which the Academy is silent is the tendency described in point b1. It is perfectly common in educated speech in many parts of the world to distinguish between no quería molestarlo "I did not mean to bother him" and no quería molestarle "I did not mean to bother you". Those Spaniards who would not just say le anyway for the reasons explained in the last paragraph are likely to use le in this case. Butt & Benjamin (1994) says that their Argentine informants made this distinction, whereas their loísta Colombian informants preferred molestarlo always.
The Academy is also silent on the tendency described in b2; however, it is universal across the Spanish-speaking world. In a questionnaire given to 28 Spaniards in the Madrid region, 90% preferred la halagó for "he flattered her" and 87% preferred le halagó for "it flattered her". García (1975) reports a similar but less extreme tendency in Buenos Aires: only 14% of García's sample said él le convenció for "he convinced him" (the rest said él lo convenció). With an inanimate subject, a slight majority (54%) said este color no le convence.
García reports Buenos Aires natives differentiating between lo llevaron al hospital and le llevaron al hospital depending on how active the patient is, although anecdotal evidence suggests that Argentines are more loísta than this, and would prefer lo in both cases.
Point b3 is also backed up by the fact that many Latin Americans distinguish between le quiero "I love him" and lo quiero "I want him" (or indeed "I want it").
Prepositions with multiple personal pronouns
In some cases, if the object of a preposition is more than one pronoun, the preposition has to be repeated or a plural pronoun must be used.With para
- Not normativeLinguistic prescriptionIn linguistics, prescription denotes normative practices on such aspects of language use as spelling, grammar, pronunciation, and syntax. It includes judgments on what usages are socially proper and politically correct...
: *Este vino es solamente para mí y tú. - Normative:
- Este vino es solamente para mí y para ti. = "This wine is only for me and (for) you."
- Este vino es solamente para nosotros. = "This wine is only for us."
Demonstrative pronouns
- Near the speaker ("this"): éste, ésta, esto, éstos, éstas (from the Latin ISTE, ISTA, ISTVD)
- Near the listener ("that"): ése, ésa, eso, ésos, ésas (from the Latin IPSE, IPSA, IPSVM)
- Far from both speaker and listener ("that (over there)"): aquél, aquélla, aquello, aquéllos, aquéllas (from the Latin *ECCVM ILLE, *ECCVM ILLA, *ECCVM ILLVD)
N.B.: According to a decision of the Real Academia from the 1960s, the accents on these forms are only to be used when necessary to avoid ambiguity with the demonstrative determiners
Spanish determiners
The Spanish language uses determiners in a similar way to English. The main difference is that they agree with the noun that they modify in terms of both number and gender .-Demonstrative determiners:...
. However, the normal educated standard is still as above. Foreign learners may safely adhere to either standard.
Note also that there is never an accent on the neuter forms esto, eso and aquello (which do not have determiner equivalents).
Relative pronouns
The main relative pronounRelative pronoun
A relative pronoun is a pronoun that marks a relative clause within a larger sentence. It is called a relative pronoun because it relates the relative clause to the noun that it modifies. In English, the relative pronouns are: who, whom, whose, whosever, whosesoever, which, and, in some...
in Spanish is que, from the Latin QVID.
Others include el cual, quien and donde.
Que
Que covers "that", "which", "who", "whom" and the null pronoun in their functions of subject and direct-object relative pronouns.- La carta que te envié era larga = "The letter [that] I sent you was long" (restrictive relative pronoun referring to direct object)
- La carta, que te envié, era larga = "The letter, which I did send you, was long" (non-restrictive relative pronoun referring to direct object)
- La gente que no sabe leer ni escribir se llama analfabeta = "People who cannot read or write are called illiterate" (relative pronoun referring to subject)
- Esa persona, que conozco yo muy bien, no es de fiar = "That person, whom I know very well, is not to be trusted"
El que
When the relative pronoun is the object of a preposition, the definite article is added to que, and this agrees for number and gender, giving us el que, la que, los que, las que and the neuter lo que. Note that in English there are two options: the preposition can go to the end of the sentence, or it can go right before the relative pronoun "which" or "whom".- Ella es la persona a la que le di el dinero = "She is the person [that/whom] I gave the money to" / "She is the person to whom I gave the money"
- Es el camino por el que caminabais = "It is the path [that] you were all walking along" / "It is the path along which you were all walking"
In some people's style of speaking, this definite article may be omitted after a, con and de, particularly when the antecedent is abstract or neuter:
- La aspereza con [la] que la trataba = "The harshness with which he treated her"
- No tengo nada en [lo] que creer = "I have not anything to believe in" / "I have nothing in which to believe"
After en, the article tends to be omitted if precise spatial location is not intended.
- Lo hiciste de la misma forma en que lo hizo él = "You did it [in] the same way [that/in which] he did it" (note also how "in" with the word forma is translated as de when used directly, but then changes to en when used with the relative pronoun)
- La casa en que vivo = "The house in which I live" (as opposed to the following:)
- La casa en la que estoy encerrado = "The house inside which I am trapped"
Lo que
Lo que has a slightly different meaning from el que, and is usually used as the connotation of "the thing that" or "what".- Lo que hiciste era malo. - The thing that you did was bad.
- Lo que creí no es correcto. - What I believed is not right.
Splitting "lo que" and adding an adjective in between changes the meaning slightly.
- Lo importante es que tenemos un hogar. - What is important is that we have a home.
- Lo mejor es que pierdas peso. - The best thing is that you lose weight (for the time being).
El cual
The pronoun el cual can replace [el] que. It is generally more emphatic and formal than [el] que. Note that it always includes the article. It derives from the Latin QVALIS.It has the following forms: el cual, la cual, los cuales, las cuales and the neuter lo cual.
For subjects and direct objects
It can be used as a formal, emphatic replacement for que in non-defining clauses, for either subjects or direct objects. The fact that it agrees for gender and number can make it clearer to what it refers. The fact that it cannot be used for defining clauses also makes it clear that a defining clause is not intended.- Los niños y sus madres, las cuales eran de Valencia, me impresionaron = "The children and their mothers, who were from Valencia, impressed me" (los cuales would have referred to the children, too, and not just their mothers)
When used for direct objects, the personal a is required if the antecedent is human.
- Esa persona, a la cual conozco yo muy bien, no es de fiar = "That person, whom I know very well, is not to be trusted"
As the object of a preposition
It can be used as a formal, emphatic replacement for el que, usually in non-defining clauses, as the object of a preposition (including a representing the indirect object). This happens in three main situations.First, it can be purely a matter of high style. This is used sparingly in Spanish, and so foreigners should avoid over-using it.
- Es el asunto al cual se refería Vd. = "It is the matter to which you were referring"
In more everyday style, this might be phrased as:
- Es el asunto al que te referías = "It is the matter to which you were referring"
Second, el cual is often preferred after propositions of more than syllable (para, contra, entre, mediante...) and after prepositional phrases (a pesar de, debajo de, a causa de, frente a, en virtud de, gracias a, por consecuencia de...).
- Un régimen bajo el cual es imposible vivir = "A régime under which it is impossible to live"
- Estas cláusulas, sin perjuicio de las cuales... = "These clauses, notwithstanding which..."
Third, el cual is preferred when it is separated from its antecedent by intervening words. The more words that intervene, the more the use of el cual is practically obligatory.
- Es un billete con el que se puede viajar [...] pero por el cual se paga sólo 2€ = "It is a ticket with which you can travel with [...] but for which you pay just €2"
Quien
The pronoun quien comes from the Latin QVEM, "whom", i.e. the accusative of QVIS, "who".It too can replace [el] que in certain circumstances. Like the English pronouns "who" and "whom", it can only be used to refer to people.
It is invariable for gender, and was originally invariable for number. However, by analogy with other words, the form quienes was invented. Quien as a plural form survives as an archaism that is now considered non-standard.
For subjects
It can represent a subject. In this case, it is rather formal and is largely restricted to non-defining clauses.Unlike el cual, it does not indicate gender, but it does indicate number, and also specifies that a person is referred to.
- Los niños con sus mochilas, quienes eran de Valencia, me impresionaron = "The children with their rucksacks, who were from Valencia, impressed me" (The use of quienes makes it clear that los niños is referred to. Que could refer to the rucksacks, the children, or both. Los cuales would refer to either the children or both. Las cuales would refer only to the rucksacks.
For direct objects
"Personal a" is required for direct objects because quien always refers to people.- Esa persona, a quien conozco yo muy bien, no es de fiar = "That person, whom I know very well, is not to be trusted" (formal; que would be more usual)
As the object of a preposition
Quien is particularly common as the object of a proposition when the clause is non-defining, but is also possible in defining clauses.- Ella es la persona a quien le di el dinero = "She is the person to whom I gave the money"
- José, gracias a quien tengo el dinero, es muy generoso = "José, thanks to whom I have the money, is very generous"
Donde, a donde, como and cuando
The etymology of these words is as follows. The Latin VNDE, meaning "whence" or "where from" gave onde, which lost the "from" meaning over the centuries and came to mean just "where". This meant that, to say "whence" or "where from", the preposition de had to be added. This gave d'onde. Again, the meaning was eroded over time until it came to mean just "where". Prepositions were therefore added once again. Therefore, nowadays, we have donde for "where" and a donde for "where to", amongst others. Note that all this means that, etymologically speaking, de donde is the rather redundant "from from from where", and a donde is the rather contradictory "to from from where".The tendence goes forward with the vulgar form ande (from adonde) often used for "where".
In the Ladino dialect of Spanish, the pronoun onde is still used, where donde still means "whence" or "where from". In Latin America, isolated communities or rural areas still retain this as well.
Como is from QVOMODO, "how", the ablative of QVID MODVS, "what way".
Cuando is from QVANDO, "when".
Location and movement
Donde can be used instead of other relative pronouns when location is referred to.Adonde is a variant that can be used when motion to the location is intended.
- El lugar en que / en el que / en el cual / donde estoy = "The place where I am" / "The place in which I am"
- Voy a[l lugar] donde está él = Voy al lugar en el que está él = "I am going [to the place] where he is"
- Iré [al lugar] adonde me lleven = Iré al lugar al que me lleven = "I will go wherever they take me" / "I will go to whatever place to which they take me"
Manner
Como can be used instead of other relative pronouns when manner is referred to.- La forma/manera en que / en la que / como reaccionasteis = "The way that / in which / how you reacted" (En que is the most common and natural, like "that" or the null pronoun in English; but como is possible, as "how" is in English.)
Note that for some reason mismo tends to require que:
- Lo dijo del mismo modo que lo dije yo = "She said it the same way [that] I did"
Time
Cuando tends to replace the use of other relative pronouns when time is referred, usually in non-defining clauses.Non-defining:
- En agosto, cuando la gente tiene vacaciones, la ciudad estará vacía = "In August, when people have their holidays, the town will be empty"
Defining:
- Sólo salgo los días [en] que no trabajo = "I only go out the days that I am not working"
Note that just que, or at the most en que, is normal with defining clauses referring to time. En el que and cuando are rarer.
Cuyo
"Cuyo" is the formal Spanish equivalent for the English pronoun "whose." However, "cuyo" is inflected for gender and number (cuyos (m. pl.), cuya (f. sing.), or cuyas (f. pl.)) according to the word it precedes. Observe the following example:- Alejandro es un estudiante cuyas calificaciones son siempre buenas. = Alejandro is a student whose grades are always good."
We can see in the above example that the gender and number of "cuyo" have changed to "cuyas" in order to match the condition of the following word, "calificaciones" (f. pl.)
In Old Spanish there were interrogative forms, cúyo, cúyas, and cúyos, no longer used.
In practice, cuyo is reserved to formal language. A periphrasis like Alejandro es un estudiante que tiene unas calificaciones siempre buenas. is more common.
Cuyo is from CVIVS, the genitive (possessive) form of QVI.
Note on relative and interrogative pronouns
Note that relative pronouns often have corresponding interrogative pronouns.For example-
"¿Qué es esto?" - "What is this?"
"Ese es el libro que me diste." - "That is the book that you gave me."
In the second line, que was helping to answer for what Qué was asking, a definition of "this".
Below is a list of interrogative pronouns and phrases with the relative pronouns that go with them.
- Qué - what/que - that
- Quién - who/quien - who
- A quién - whom/a quien - whom
- De quién - whose, of whom/cuyo - whose, of whom
Reflexive pronouns and impersonal se
The reflexive pronoun is used with pronominal verbs, also known as reflexive verbs. These verbs require the use of the reflexive pronoun, appropriate to the subject. The forms are as follows:| Singular | Plural | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yo | me | Nosotros / Nosotras | nos | |
| Tú / Vos | te | Vosotros / Vosotras | os | |
| Él / Ella / Usted | se | Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | se |
Some transitive verbs can take on a reflexive meaning, such as lavar (to wash) and lavarse (to wash oneself). Other verbs have reflexive forms which do not take on a reflexive meaning, such as ir (to go) and irse (to go away). Some verbs only have reflexive forms, such as jactarse (to boast).