The Subject Pronouns

In English, subject pronouns refer to I, You, He, She, It, They, We. Spanish also has subject pronouns. But it differs in that it has gender for two pronouns:

They: ellos "they" which are all men or a mix of men and women and ellas "they" which are all women. With ellos, there can be a thousand women in a room, but if one man enters, you refer to the entire group as ellos .

We: nosotros means "we" men or mix of men and women, while nosotras means "we" women.

Spanish also has separate forms to express "you": tú (familiar or casual) and usted (polite or formal). In English, we speak politely when addressing strangers, people older than ourselves or authority figures. We usually convey our politeness through tone and body language. You can greet your best friend as well as the Queen of England with, "How are you?" but you say it differently. Asking ¿Cómo está usted? is like saying "How are you, sir (or ma'am)?" Using Señoror Señora with other greetings has the same effect: Buenos días, Señor . The best rule of thumb is use the Usted form when addressing a stranger, a person older than yourself, or an authority figure. When in doubt, it is better to use Usted and allow the other person to suggest using the Tú form.

Don't forget that Él is spelled with an accent mark. Sometimes in Spanish, the accent marks are left off of capitalized vowels. It is best that you always put an accent mark on the pronoun él to distinguish it from the unaccented el which means "the" (masculine, singular.)

Note: In Spanish, you can tell who is speaking or whom someone is speaking about by the form of the conjugated verb. This is different from English where nearly all the forms of most verbs are the same: I eat, you eat, we eat, they eat,etc. So in English we have to use the subject pronouns all of the time. But in Spanish, since each form is unique and reveals the subject, we don't have to use the subject pronouns. The present tense Yo form always ends in o or -oy, while the nosotrosform ends in -mos. We know who the subject is by the verb form itself. In cases where you are refering to “him”, “her” or “them”, you may use a subject pronoun or even a name so it is clear whom you are talking about.

The Subject Pronouns

I	Yo	Nosotros	We (mixed group of men and women or all men)
You (casual)	Tú	Nosotras	We (group of women)
You (polite)	Usted	Ustedes	You all
He	él	Ellos	They (mixed group of men and women or all men)
She	ella	Ellas	They (group of women)

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