SUBJECT PRONOUNS
The subject of a sentence, the noun, is the person or thing, which performs the action. The Subject pronoun replaces this person or thing, the noun. Before you can fully understand how to conjugate verbs, you must understand subject pronouns.
ENGLISH
1st person singular I
2nd person singular you
3rd person singular he, she, it
1st person plural we
2nd person plural you (y'all)
3rd person plural they
SPANISH
1st person singular yo
2nd person singular *tú
3rd person singular él, ella, *Ud.
1st person plural nosotros, nosotras
2nd person plural *vosotros, vosotras
3rd person plural ellos, ellas, *Uds.
* The Spanish distinguish between the informal and the formal "you." The informal is used for friends, family, and people close in age. The formal is used to show respect or to indicate the person is unknown to the speaker.
2nd person singular *tú = you, informal, close friend, relative, child...
3rd person singular *Ud.= you, formal, respectful, older person...
2nd person plural *vosotros, vosotras, used primarily in Spain
3rd person plural *Uds. = y'all, used throughout Latin America
Vosotros/vosotras are used only in Spain. In Latin America, ustedes is used to refer to both the familiar and the formal “plural you”.
Ser
In English, the verb "to be" can be conjugated in the present tense like this:
Verb in the infinitive form (the "to" form) to walk, to talk, to read ...
to be
ENGLISH
1st person singular I am
2nd person singular you are
3rd person singular he is, she is, it is
1st person plural we are
2nd person plural you (y'all) are
3rd person plural they are
Ser = to be
SPANISH
1st person singular (yo) soy
Soy de Pittsburgh.
2nd person singular (tú) eres
Eres un alumno.
3rd person singular él es, ella es, Ud. es
Es de Chicago. Who? We need the subject pronoun or the actual noun to clarify "who is from Chicago"
1st person plural nosotros, nosotras somos
Somos estudiantes.
2nd person plural *vosotros, vosotras sois
Sois de España. We won't use this in class, but I want you to be able to recognize it when you see it.
3rd person plural ellos, ellas, Uds. son
Son de Pittsburgh. Who? Just like the 3rd person singular (es), with son we need to use the subject pronoun or the actual noun to clarify this statement.
Don't stress we will do this over and over again.
