25 Formal vs Informal “You”
What is a Subject?
Generally speaking, a subject is who or what a sentence is about. Nearly anything can be a subject. In the sentences below the subjects are underlined:
Nicholas Cage is an actor.
Greece is a beautiful country.
Julio, Rafael, and I went to the store.
Your health is very important.
Swimming and bicycling are fun activities.
Subjects usually come at the beginning of a sentence but they don’t have to.
What is a Subject Pronoun?
A pronoun is a shorter word that takes the place of a longer noun. We use pronouns once we’ve introduced a noun so that we don’t have to keep repeating the same thing over and over again. Here are some sentences where the subjects have been replaced with subject pronouns.
He is an actor.
It is a beautiful country.
We went to the store.
It is very important.
They are fun activities.
The subject pronouns in English are “I,” “you,” “he,” she,” “it,” “we,” and “they.” It can be beneficial to organize them into a chart based on number (how many people or things there are) and person (whether you’re talking about yourself, to someone else, or about someone else).
| singular: | plural: | |
|---|---|---|
|
first person: |
I |
we |
|
second person: |
you |
you |
|
third person: |
he, she, it |
they |
Notice that there is no distinction in English between the singular “you” and the plural “you.” While it’s not considered proper grammar, many people will use “y’all” or “you guys” to indicate that they’re speaking to more than one person.
It’s also worth noting that “he” and “she” are the only pronouns that take gender into account.
Spanish Subject Pronouns
The subject pronoun chart in Spanish looks like this:
| singular: | plural: | |
|---|---|---|
|
first person: |
yo |
nosotros, nosotras |
|
second person: |
tú |
vosotros, vosotras |
|
third person: |
él, ella |
ellos, ellas |
Note there is no subject pronoun for “it” in Spanish. How do you say “it”? See below.
Yo
To say “I” in Spanish, say yo. Yo is not capitalized unless it starts a sentence:
Yo hablo español.
I speak Spanish.
Afortunadamente yo hablo español.
Fortunately I speak Spanish.
In many regions the y in yo is pronounced very strongly and sounds more like “jo.”
Tú
To say “you” in Spanish, say tú. Tú can only be singular; you cannot use tú to address a group of people. Also, the accent on the “u” is not optional; tu (without the accent) means “your” not “you.” (The words túand tu are pronounced the same way.)
Tú hablas español.
You speak Spanish.
Él, Ella
To say “he” in Spanish, say él. Like tú, the accent on the “e” is not optional; el (without the accent) means “the” not “he.” (The words él and el are pronounced the same way.)
To say “she” in Spanish, say ella. Remember that the double-l is pronounced like a y.
Él habla español.
He speaks Spanish.
Ella habla español.
She speaks Spanish.
Nosotros, Nosotras
Note: If you are male, it’s very unlikely you would ever have reason to say or write nosotras.
Usually when you need to say