有用的西班牙语代词指南

 Any story you tell may sound very boring if you keep on repeating a particular word several times in a row. This is when pronouns come in handy.

Pronouns are short and useful words used to replac nouns. Take a look at the following examples:

Mark is my friend. Mark is a doctor.

and

Mark is my friend. He is a doctor.

As you can see, pronouns help to make the sentences flow better. Thanks to them, there is no need to repeat the same nouns over and over again.

Pronouns in Spanish can play any role in a sentence that a noun can, no matter whether it’s subject or object. Probably the most significant difference between English and Spanish pronouns is that almost all forms of pronouns in Spanish have gender — masculine or feminine.

What are the pronouns in Spanish? To help you puzzle out this question and make your online Spanish learning journey much easier, we’ve prepared a guide to 3 most frequently used types of Spanish pronouns. Whether you’re traveling to Barcelona, watching a Spanish movie, or chatting online with your friend from Spain, this list will surely help you understand others and better express yourself.

3 types of pronouns in Spanish

We hope the following Spanish pronouns list will help you learn the basics. But if you want to find out more about the pronouns in Spanish and practice your language skills with a native speaker, check out Preply! Preply is one of the leading educational platforms that provides one-on-one online lessons with certified tutors via the user-friendly video chat.

Studying with Preply is a cost-effective way of immersing yourself in Spanish culture while actively building your vocabulary.

Subject pronouns

The subject pronouns are words that replac the subject of the sentence and show who or what is doing something or being something. The subject is the most significant noun in a sentence as it’s connected directly with the main verb. To avoid repeating a subject noun, we use a subject pronoun instead of it. For example:

Yo prefiero agua con limón. — I prefer water with lemon.

Ella escucha música clásica. — She listens to classical music.

Subject pronouns in Spanish are classified by:

• person (first, second, or third person);
• gender (male, female);
• number (singular, plural);
• formality (formal, informal).

Here is the complete list of the Spanish subject pronouns and their English equivalents:

	Singular		Plural
First person	I	yo	we	nosotros, nosotras
Second person	you	tú, vos (informal)	you all	vosotros, vosotras
		usted (formal)		ustedes
Third person	he	él	they	ellos (male)
	she	ella		ellas (female)

There is no need to capitalize yo like we do in English unless it’s the first word in a sentence.

Note that tú and él are written with the accent marks to distinguish them from tu (your) and el (the).

The use of tú and vos depends on the region. In some countries, such as Costa Rica, Paraguay, and Argentina, you may hear vos instead of tú. In Spain, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Mexico, the use of tú is preferable. If you want to say you (formal) in Spanish, opt for usted.

Both vosotros/vosotras and ustedes mean “you all” in Spanish and are used when talking to a group of people. Ustedes is prevalent in Latin America, while vosotros/vosotras is generally used in Spain.

The subject pronouns nosotros/nosotras are used to say “we” in Spanish. Pay attention that masculine forms vosotros, nosotros, and ellos, which means “they” in Spanish, are used when we’re talking to a male group as well as a mixed group of men and women. The feminine forms are acceptable only when the entire group consists of women.

It’s also important to understand that the subject pronouns aren’t always used in sentences since each Spanish verb form is unique and identifies who the subject is. Unless you want to emphasize who you’re talking about, the subject pronoun is pretty unnecessary. For example:

Yo voy a la tienda. — I go to the store.

Voy a la tienda. — I go to the store.

 

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Direct object pronouns

The direct object pronouns are used instead of the direct object nouns. They answer the question “what?” or “who?” and indicate an object that directly receives the action of a verb in a sentence. So in the example, “Tomas hit the ball” (Tomás golpeó la bola), Tomas is the subject, and the ball is the object.

The Spanish pronouns chart below shows the forms that direct object pronouns can take:

Singular		Plural
me	me	us (nosotros, nosotras)	nos
you (informal)	te	you all (vosotros, vosotras)	os
him	lo	them (ellos)	los
you (formal, male)		you all (ustedes, male)
it (male)		them (ellas)	las
her	la	you all (ustedes, female)
you (formal, female)		Note that when you have a mixed group of people, you use the masculine form of the plural nouns.
it (female)

Let’s imagine that we know “Tomas has the ball” (Thomas tiene la bola), and someone asks us, “wher is the ball?” (¿Dónde está la bola?). We may answer:

Thomas la tiene. — Thomas has it.

“It” or “la” is the direct object pronoun in this sentence. Since the speaker already knows we’re referring to the ball, using the pronoun is easier than saying “Thomas tiene la bola”. Note that in Spanish direct object pronouns come before the verb.

Indirect object pronouns

Similarly to the direct object pronouns, indirect object pronouns replac a noun and show us wher the direct object is headed (to whom? or for whom?). Sounds tricky, right? Let’s see some examples:

Thomas gives the ball to Martha. — Thomas da la bola a Martha.

As we’ve found out previously, “the ball” is the direct object. And wher is it going? To Martha! So Martha is the indirect object. If we replac her name with the indirect object pronoun, we’ll get:

Thomas le da la bola. — Thomas gives her the ball.

Let’s have a look at a chart of the Spanish indirect object pronouns:

Singular		Plural
me	me	us	nos
you (informal)	te	you all (vosotros/vosotras)	os
you (formal)	le	you all (ustedes)	les
him		them
her		Note that gender doesn’t matter when it comes to this type of Spanish pronouns.
it

In Spanish, the indirect object pronouns also go before the verb, unlike in English wher they’re used after.