Spanish personal pronouns have distinct forms according to whether they stand for the subject (
nominative
In grammar, the nominative case (abbreviated ), subjective case, straight case or upright case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or (in Latin and formal variants of Engl ...
) or object, and third-person pronouns make an additional distinction for direct object (
accusative
The accusative case (abbreviated ) of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb.
In the English language, the only words that occur in the accusative case are pronouns: 'me,' 'him,' 'her,' 'us,' and ‘the ...
) or indirect object (
dative
In grammar, the dative case (abbreviated , or sometimes when it is a core argument) is a grammatical case used in some languages to indicate the recipient or beneficiary of an action, as in "Maria Jacobo potum dedit", Latin for "Maria gave Jacob a ...
), and for
reflexivity as well. Several pronouns also have special forms used after
preposition
Prepositions and postpositions, together called adpositions (or broadly, in traditional grammar, simply prepositions), are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in'', ''under'', ''towards'', ''before'') or mark various ...
s.
Spanish is a
pro-drop
A pro-drop language (from "pronoun-dropping") is a language where certain classes of pronouns may be omitted when they can be pragmatically or grammatically inferable. The precise conditions vary from language to language, and can be quite int ...
language with respect to subject pronouns, and, like many European languages, Spanish makes a
T-V distinction in second person pronouns that has no equivalent in modern English. Object pronouns can be both
clitic
In morphology and syntax, a clitic (, backformed from Greek "leaning" or "enclitic"Crystal, David. ''A First Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics''. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1980. Print.) is a morpheme that has syntactic characteristics of a w ...
and non-clitic, with non-clitic forms carrying greater emphasis. With clitic pronouns,
proclitic
In morphology and syntax, a clitic (, backformed from Greek "leaning" or "enclitic"Crystal, David. ''A First Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics''. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1980. Print.) is a morpheme that has syntactic characteristics of a w ...
forms are much more common, but
enclitic
In morphology and syntax, a clitic (, backformed from Greek "leaning" or "enclitic"Crystal, David. ''A First Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics''. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1980. Print.) is a morpheme that has syntactic characteristics of a wo ...
forms are mandatory in certain situations. There is significant regional variation in the use of personal pronouns, especially second-person pronouns.
Table of personal pronouns
All the personal pronouns used in Spanish are outlined in the table below. Ladino, historically spoken by
Sephardic Jews
Sephardic (or Sephardi) Jews (, ; lad, Djudíos Sefardíes), also ''Sepharadim'' , Modern Hebrew: ''Sfaradim'', Tiberian: Səp̄āraddîm, also , ''Ye'hude Sepharad'', lit. "The Jews of Spain", es, Judíos sefardíes (or ), pt, Judeus sefar ...
, employs some personal pronouns that have fallen out of use in Spanish.
:
1 Only in countries with ''
voseo
In Spanish grammar, () is the use of as a second-person singular pronoun, along with its associated verbal forms, in certain regions where the language is spoken. In those regions it replaces , i.e. the use of the pronoun and its verbal for ...
''; Ladino has ''vos'' as the
formal form, instead of ''usted''.
:
2 Primarily in Spain; elsewhere, ''ustedes'' is used in the plural regardless of the level of formality.
:
3 Reflexive
''Usted'' may be abbreviated as ''Ud.'' or ''Vd''.
Subject pronouns
Pronoun dropping and grammatical gender
Spanish is a
pro-drop
A pro-drop language (from "pronoun-dropping") is a language where certain classes of pronouns may be omitted when they can be pragmatically or grammatically inferable. The precise conditions vary from language to language, and can be quite int ...
language with respect to subject pronouns. Information contained in verb endings often renders the explicit use of subject pronouns unnecessary and even erroneous although they may still be used for clarity or emphasis:
* ''Yo hago'' or just ''Hago'' = "I do"
* ''Ellos vieron'' or just ''Vieron'' = "They saw"
English subject pronouns are generally not translated into Spanish if neither clarity nor emphasis is an issue. "I think" is generally translated as just ''Creo'' unless the speaker contrasts their views with those of someone else or places emphasis on the fact that their views are their own and not somebody else's.
Third-person masculine and feminine pronouns (''él'', ''ella'', ''ellos'', and ''ellas'') can refer to grammatically masculine and feminine objects as well as people, but their explicit use as subjects is somewhat uncommon, and restricted to people. The third-person neuter singular pronoun ''ello'' is likewise rarely used as an explicit subject in everyday language, although such usage is found in formal and literary contexts. Quite unusually among European languages, the first- and second-person plural subject pronouns (''nosotros/nosotras'' and ''vosotros/vosotras'', respectively) inflect for gender: ''nosotros'' and ''vosotros'' are used to refer to groups of men (as well as men and women), while ''nosotras'' and ''vosotras'' are used exclusively to refer to groups of women.
''Tú''/''vos'' and ''usted''
Like
French and other languages with the
T-V distinction, modern Spanish has a distinction in its second-person pronouns that has no equivalent in modern English. The most basic is the difference between ( in areas with
voseo
In Spanish grammar, () is the use of as a second-person singular pronoun, along with its associated verbal forms, in certain regions where the language is spoken. In those regions it replaces , i.e. the use of the pronoun and its verbal for ...
) and : or is the "familiar" form, and , derived from the third-person form "your grace" (), is the "polite" form. The appropriate usage of those forms is fundamental to interpersonal communication.
The usage of and depends on a number of factors, such as the number of people with whom the speaker is talking, the formality or informality of the relationship between the speaker and the other person, the age difference between them, and the regional variation of Spanish.
Using the form to address someone implies that the person addressed is a social superior, someone to whom respect is owed, or someone with whom one does not have a close relationship. In contrast, the use of or implies that the person addressed is an equal, a
comrade
The term ''comrade'' (russian: товарищ, tovarisch) generally means 'mate', 'colleague', or 'ally', and derives from the Spanish and Portuguese, term , literally meaning 'chamber mate', from Latin , meaning 'chamber' or 'room'. It may also ...
, a friend, someone with whom one has a close relationship, or a child or other social inferior, including (traditionally) a maid or other household employee. is also used to address God, in parallel with English's otherwise-abandoned use of .
Usage changed in the 20th century in Spain,
and a woman who addressed her mother as using could experience that her children call her es, mamá, lit=mom, label=none and use . Also, in Spain the
Falangists and the Communists promoted the ''
tuteo
Some of the regional varieties of the Spanish language are quite divergent from one another, especially in pronunciation and vocabulary, and less so in grammar.
While all Spanish dialects adhere to approximately the same written standard, ...
'' as a sign of worker solidarity.
One can give offense by addressing someone with instead of , similar to inappropriately calling someone by their first name in English; conversely, it can also be awkward to use if would be expected, which suggests too much social distance or implies that the person addressed is being haughty. Spanish has a verb, , meaning to use the familiar form to address a person. If speakers feel that the relationship with the conversant has evolved, sometimes only after a few minutes of conversation, to a point that a shift from to is desirable, they often confirm that by asking if it is acceptable: or is fairly common. In
Anglophone
Speakers of English are also known as Anglophones, and the countries where English is natively spoken by the majority of the population are termed the ''Anglosphere''. Over two billion people speak English , making English the largest language ...
countries, that would be roughly analogous to asking if it is acceptable to call someone by their first name.
In the plural, in Spain (other than the
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Morocc ...
and parts of western
Andalusia
Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a ...
), the usage of the familiar and the polite is identical to the usage of . In the Canary Islands as well as those parts of western Andalusia, in addition to all of Spanish America, is not used except in very formal contexts such as oratory, and is the familiar as well as the polite plural.
The distinction extends to other types of pronouns and modifiers: when using one must also use the third-person object pronouns and possessive adjectives. "" ( with an (acute)
accent is the subject pronoun, with no accent is a possessive adjective) means "your house" in the familiar singular: the owner of the house is one person, and it is a person with whom one has the closer relationship the form implies. In contrast, can mean "his/her/their house, but it can also mean "your house" in the polite singular: the owner of the house is someone with whom one has the more distant or formal relationship implied by the use of .
Similarly, the use of requires third-person object pronouns except in some
Andalusian dialects. means "you
amiliar singularwash yourself", but can mean "you
olite singularwash yourself" as well as "he/she/it washes himself/herself/itself"'.
Impersonal pronouns
There are several
impersonal pronouns in Spanish:
* ''uno'' ("one", as well as ''una'' for women), which declines as a normal third-person pronoun and is treated as such for purposes of conjugation and reflexivity.
* Many ideas that would be expressed with an impersonal pronoun in English would more often be expressed with so-called ''pasiva refleja'' (
passive
Passive may refer to:
* Passive voice, a grammatical voice common in many languages, see also Pseudopassive
* Passive language, a language from which an interpreter works
* Passivity (behavior), the condition of submitting to the influence of on ...
reflexive) constructions in Spanish: "That is not done" (''Eso no se hace''), rather than "You (One) wouldn't do that" (''Uno no hace eso'').
* Impersonal ''tú'' might be a recent phenomenon. It is conjugated with the second-person but is not directed to the listener. According to one scholar, it might have appeared in the
Valencian Community
The Valencian Community ( ca-valencia, Comunitat Valenciana, es, Comunidad Valenciana) is an autonomous community of Spain. It is the fourth most populous Spanish autonomous community after Andalusia, Catalonia and the Community of Madrid with ...
around the 1940s.
[Soler-Espiauba, page 201.] It is used very often in speech in Spain:
Reflexive pronouns and intensifiers
The third person is the only person with a distinct reflexive pronoun: ''se''. In the first and second persons, the normal object pronouns are used. Thus, the reflexive forms are:
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. 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).
The nominal intensifier in Spanish (equivalent to English "myself", "yourself", "themselves", etc. when used after a noun) is ''mismo'', which in this case is placed after the noun it modifies and behaves like a normal adjective. Thus:
* ''Yo mismo lo hice'' = "I
asc.myself did it"
* ''No entiendo porque necesitas la cosa misma'' = "I don't understand why you need the thing itself"
* ''Dáselo a los hombres mismos'' = "Give it to the men themselves"
* ''A nosotros no nos gustan las chicas mismas'' = "We don't like the girls themselves" (lit. "The girls themselves don't please us")
Unlike English intensifiers, which are often placed several words after the noun they modify (e.g. "I did it myself"), Spanish intensifiers must come immediately after the noun they modify.
Object pronouns
Object pronoun
In linguistics, an object pronoun is a personal pronoun that is used typically as a grammatical object: the direct or indirect object of a verb, or the object of a preposition. Object pronouns contrast with subject pronouns. Object pronouns in Eng ...
s are personal pronouns that take the function of an
object
Object may refer to:
General meanings
* Object (philosophy), a thing, being, or concept
** Object (abstract), an object which does not exist at any particular time or place
** Physical object, an identifiable collection of matter
* Goal, an ...
in the sentence. Spanish object pronouns may be both
clitic
In morphology and syntax, a clitic (, backformed from Greek "leaning" or "enclitic"Crystal, David. ''A First Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics''. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1980. Print.) is a morpheme that has syntactic characteristics of a w ...
and non-clitic; the clitic form is the unstressed form, and the non-clitic form, which is formed with the preposition ''a'' ("to") and the prepositional case, is the stressed form. Clitics cannot function independently and must attach to a host (either a
verb
A verb () is a word (part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descri ...
or preposition). Clitic pronouns are generally
proclitic
In morphology and syntax, a clitic (, backformed from Greek "leaning" or "enclitic"Crystal, David. ''A First Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics''. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1980. Print.) is a morpheme that has syntactic characteristics of a w ...
, i.e. they appear before the verb of which they are the object.
Enclitic
In morphology and syntax, a clitic (, backformed from Greek "leaning" or "enclitic"Crystal, David. ''A First Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics''. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1980. Print.) is a morpheme that has syntactic characteristics of a wo ...
pronouns (i.e. pronouns attached to the end of the verb (or related word) itself) most often appear with positive
imperatives and may appear with
infinitive
Infinitive (abbreviated ) is a linguistics term for certain verb forms existing in many languages, most often used as non-finite verbs. As with many linguistic concepts, there is not a single definition applicable to all languages. The word is deri ...
s and
gerund
In linguistics, a gerund ( abbreviated ) is any of various nonfinite verb forms in various languages; most often, but not exclusively, one that functions as a noun. In English, it has the properties of both verb and noun, such as being modifiable ...
s as well. In all compound infinitives that make use of the
past participle
In linguistics, a participle () (from Latin ' a "sharing, partaking") is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives. More narrowly, ''participle'' has been defined as "a word derived from ...
, enclitics attach to the uninflected auxiliary verb and not the past participle(s) itself.
In Spanish, two (and rarely three) clitic pronouns can be used with a single verb, generally one accusative and one dative. They follow a specific order based primarily on person:
Thus:
* ''Él me lo dio'' = "He gave it to me"
* ''Ellos te lo dijeron'' = "They said it to you"
* ''Yo te me daré'' = "I will give myself to you"
* ''Vosotros os nos mostráis'' = "You
l.are showing yourselves to us"
* ''Se le perdieron los libros'' = "The books disappeared on him" (lit. "The books got lost to him")
The full and pronominal form of a reduplicated direct object must agree in gender and number:
* ''A las tropas las dirige César.'' = "Caesar directs the troops."
When an accusative third-person non-reflexive pronoun (''lo'', ''la'', ''los'', or ''las'') is used with a dative pronoun that is understood to also be third-person non-reflexive (''le'' or ''les''), the dative pronoun is replaced by ''se''. Simple non-emphatic
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 (as opposed to the cases where such pronouns and full noun phrases a ...
is most often found with dative clitics, although it is occasionally found with accusative clitics as well. In a wide area in central Spain, including
Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
, there exists the practice of
leísmo
''Leísmo'' ("using ''le''") is a dialectal variation in the Spanish language that occurs largely in Spain. It involves using the indirect object pronouns ''le'' and ''les'' in place of the (generally standard) direct object pronouns ''lo'', ' ...
; which is, using the indirect object pronoun ''le'' for the object pronoun where
Standard Spanish
Standard Spanish, also called the es, label=none, norma culta, lit=cultivated norm, refers to the standard, or codified, variety of the Spanish language, which most writing and formal speech in Spanish tends to reflect. This standard, like other ...
would use ''lo'' (masculine) or ''la'' (feminine) for the object pronoun.
Genitive pronouns
Genitive pronouns describe to whom something belongs or of whom (or sometimes what) something is a characteristic or property. They are analogous to English "mine", "yours", "his", "hers", etc., and unlike their English counterparts, they inflect for gender and number according to the thing possessed (''not'' the possessor itself) and are generally used with the definite article:
* ''Mi coche es más grande que el tuyo'' = "My car is bigger than yours"
* ''Tu casa tiene más cuartos que la suya'' = "Your house has more rooms than his/hers/yours/theirs"
* ''Estos libros son más interesantes que los vuestros'' = "These books are more interesting than yours
l.
* ''Esas camisas son más pequeñas que las nuestras'' = "Those shirts are smaller than ours"
After ''ser'', however, the definite article is usually omitted:
* ''Este coche es mío'' = "This car is mine"
* ''Esta camisa es suya'' = "This shirt is his/hers/yours/theirs"
To avoid ambiguity in the meaning of ''suyo'', it may be replaced by ''de'' + the appropriate pronoun:
* ''Estos pantalones son más largos que los de él'' = "These pants are longer than his"
* ''Esta camisa es de ella'' = "This shirt is hers"
The neuter article ''lo'' can also be used with genitive pronouns to express the concept of "what is mine", "what is yours", "what is his", etc.: ''lo mío'', ''lo tuyo'', ''lo suyo'', etc.
Genitive pronouns are identical in form to
long-form possessive adjectives, which can be placed after the noun to place emphasis on the fact of possession.
Old forms
Formal ''vos''
The pronoun ''vos'' was once used as a respectful form of address, semantically equivalent to modern ''usted''. It used the same conjugations as modern ''vosotros'' (see below) and also the oblique form ''os'' and the possessive ''vuestro/-a/-os/-as''.
However, unlike ''vosotros'', which always refers to more than one person, ''vos'' was usually singular in meaning. The modern ''
voseo
In Spanish grammar, () is the use of as a second-person singular pronoun, along with its associated verbal forms, in certain regions where the language is spoken. In those regions it replaces , i.e. the use of the pronoun and its verbal for ...
'' of several countries (see below) derives from ''vos'' but has become a generic form of address instead of a specifically respectful form. ''Vos'' and its related forms are still used in literature, cinema, etc., when attempting to depict the language of past centuries.
Regional variation
''Voseo''
The pronoun "
vos" is used in some areas of Latin America, particularly in Central America, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, the state of Zulia in Venezuela, and the Andean regions of Colombia, Bolivia, Perú, and Ecuador. These are all distant from the large Spanish colonial cities, like Mexico City, Cartagena (Colombia), and Lima.
In some areas, like the River Plate region, ''vos'' has become the only generic form of address for the second-person singular, that is, it has the same meaning that ''tú'' has elsewhere (informal and intimate). In other areas, like Chile, it persists as a fairly stigmatized form alongside the more prestigious ''tú''. In some other areas, it is employed among equals but not for very close people (couples or family) or to ''inferiors'' (children, animals etc.), where the pronoun ''tú'' would normally be used.
Ladino
Ladino, derived from Latin, may refer to:
* The register of Judaeo-Spanish used in the translation of religious texts, such as the Ferrara Bible
*Ladino people, a socio-ethnic category of Mestizo or Hispanicized people in Central America especi ...
uses ''vos'' as well but uses it as in Old Spanish (see above), that is, as a respectful form of address, equivalent to how ''usted'' is used elsewhere. In fact, Ladino does 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.
In the local
Spanish-based creole
A Spanish creole, or Spanish-based creole language, is a creole language (contact language with native speakers) for which Spanish language, Spanish serves as its substantial ''lexifier''.
A number of creole languages are influenced to varying ...
,
Chavacano
Chavacano or Chabacano is a group of Spanish-based creole language varieties spoken in the Philippines. The variety spoken in Zamboanga City, located in the southern Philippine island group of Mindanao, has the highest concentration of speakers. ...
, the use of ''vos'' coexists alongside ''tú'' and ''usted'' depending on level of intimacy, commonality, and formality.
The use of ''vusted'' and ''vuestra merced''
The variant ''vusted''/''vustedes'' is mostly a regionalism in some countries in South America. It is common in isolated areas of
Colombia
Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...
and
Venezuela
Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...
. Other speakers consider it archaic because it is an older form of a contraction of ''vuestra merced''. In Colombia, it is common for people to use ''su merced'' interchangeably with ''usted''. ''Su merced'' can be used in the
vocative case
In grammar, the vocative case (abbreviated ) is a grammatical case which is used for a noun that identifies a person (animal, object, etc.) being addressed, or occasionally for the noun modifiers ( determiners, adjectives, participles, and num ...
as well such as 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 grace") is the origin of ''usted'', ''usarcé'' and similar forms that govern third-person verb forms with a second-person function. They are now confined mostly to period works.
It is unlikely that the similar-sounding Arabic (), meaning "professor", was involved in the formation of Spanish ''usted'' because of the weakness of the semantic link and the fact that ''usted'' is not documented before 1598, over a century after the fall of
Moorish Granada.
Use of
Today, the informal second-person plural pronoun is widely used by Spaniards except in some southwestern regions and in most of the
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Morocc ...
, where its use is rare. Among the former colonies of the
Spanish Empire
The Spanish Empire ( es, link=no, Imperio español), also known as the Hispanic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Hispánica) or the Catholic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Católica) was a colonial empire governed by Spain and its prede ...
, the use of and its normal conjugations is also retained in the
Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
and
Equatorial Guinea
Equatorial Guinea ( es, Guinea Ecuatorial; french: Guinée équatoriale; pt, Guiné Equatorial), officially the Republic of Equatorial Guinea ( es, link=no, República de Guinea Ecuatorial, french: link=no, République de Guinée équatoria ...
. is the only form used by Sephardic Jews who speak
Ladino
Ladino, derived from Latin, may refer to:
* The register of Judaeo-Spanish used in the translation of religious texts, such as the Ferrara Bible
*Ladino people, a socio-ethnic category of Mestizo or Hispanicized people in Central America especi ...
.
Throughout Latin America, the second person plural pronoun is almost always used orally in both formal (singular ) and informal (singular ) contexts. However, "that is not used in Spanish America is one of the great myths of Spanish language instruction, at least in the U.S." The following quote from
Sandino was displayed on a billboard in Nicaragua:
is not unusual in
orator
An orator, or oratist, is a public speaker, especially one who is eloquent or skilled.
Etymology
Recorded in English c. 1374, with a meaning of "one who pleads or argues for a cause", from Anglo-French ''oratour'', Old French ''orateur'' (14th ...
y, legal documents, or other highly formal or archaic contexts.
The use of was more widespread in formal, educated speech in Hispanic America around the time of the
Spanish American wars of independence
The Spanish American wars of independence (25 September 1808 – 29 September 1833; es, Guerras de independencia hispanoamericanas) were numerous wars in Spanish America with the aim of political independence from Spanish rule during the early ...
.
Creoles
Forms based on ''vosotros'' and ''vos'' are used in many
Spanish-based creole languages
A Spanish creole, or Spanish-based creole language, is a creole language (contact language with native speakers) for which Spanish serves as its substantial ''lexifier''.
A number of creole languages are influenced to varying degrees by the Spa ...
.
In
Chavacano
Chavacano or Chabacano is a group of Spanish-based creole language varieties spoken in the Philippines. The variety spoken in Zamboanga City, located in the southern Philippine island group of Mindanao, has the highest concentration of speakers. ...
, 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 () or Papiamentu (; nl, Papiaments) is a Portuguese-based creole language spoken in the Dutch Caribbean. It is the most widely spoken language on the Caribbean ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao), with official status in Arub ...
, spoken in
Aruba
Aruba ( , , ), officially the Country of Aruba ( nl, Land Aruba; pap, Pais Aruba) is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands physically located in the mid-south of the Caribbean Sea, about north of the Venezuela peninsula of ...
,
Bonaire
Bonaire (; , ; pap, Boneiru, , almost pronounced ) is a Dutch island in the Leeward Antilles in the Caribbean Sea. Its capital is the port of Kralendijk, on the west ( leeward) coast of the island. Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao form the ABC i ...
, and
Curaçao
Curaçao ( ; ; pap, Kòrsou, ), officially the Country of Curaçao ( nl, Land Curaçao; pap, Pais Kòrsou), is a Lesser Antilles island country in the southern Caribbean Sea and the Dutch Caribbean region, about north of the Venezuela coast ...
, maintains ''boso'' (singular) and ''bosonan'' (plural). Since it was used with slaves, the forms that seemed disrespectful in the rest of America were common.
Other forms
is the equivalent of ''I'' in
Caló, where it is concords in first person singular. In Spanish slang such as
Cheli
Cheli is a Spanish-language juvenile sociolect or jargon diatopically restricted to the Madrid area, developed in the 1970s, primarily associated to the post-Francoist counterculture. It drew influence from the hampa and drug-dealing jargons, an ...
, ♂ / ♀ can be used as an emphatic ''I'', concording with a third person verb, but its use is receding.
''Servidor''
, or simply for the masculine gender and , , for the feminine are nouns meaning "servant" but used with the singular third-person verb as a polite or distancing first-person pronoun, e.g. , es, Servidora está harta de usted., lit=
isdainfullyI am fed up with you., label=none
See also
*
Portuguese personal pronouns
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
Notes
References
{{reflist
Spanish grammar
Pronouns by language
Personal pronouns