Soy vs. Yo Soy

[averyw]

In the event that I am trying to say "I am _____.", would I use "Soy _____." or "Yo soy ____." ?

I always thought that the 'yo' wasn't necessary, but I was told otherwise. Does it depend on vowels or consonants, or is it a no-exception rule?

The reason I'm asking is because I want to say "I am spiritual." in something I'm writing, and I've been writing it as "Soy espiritual.", though I don't know if that's correct. Google translate agreed with me, but it's not always reputable.

[Trellum]

In most cases the ''Yo'' isn't that necessary at all, but sometimes is added to reinforce what you are saying, like in this case: Yo soy espiritual.  The ''yo'' should really be there, at least to put more emphasis on that fact, but ''Soy espiritual'' is also fine, it sounds weaker tho. 

Don't worry about it, the ''yo'' is barely used most of the time, specially when the conversation is barely informal.

[Juan Fuentes]

While the exact, textbook, word for word english-spanish translation of "I am spiritual" would be "Yo soy espiritual", in common spanish you don't have to use "yo" to be understood, since the word "soy" in spanish is used only as the first person conjugation of the "to be" verb.

So, "soy espiritual" would be correct. More importantly, any spanish-speaking person who reads your message will understand what you're saying.

[Kaynil]

It makes perfect sense to say "soy espiritual".

As Juan said "soy" implicitly carries the "I" connotation, so it is not a must, at least not in this case. To be honest I am racking my brains to think in what cases the "yo" is a must.

On the other hand, trellum is also correct in that sometimes you can use  "yo" to add a bit of boldness to your statement, but that is more in the pronunciation that in written text.

[petesede]

I learned ( and this is just informal teaching).  You never need to use yo except for two situations

1.  You want to emphasis that you are different than something that was stated earlier.  For instance ´many people think they don´t need to exercise to be healthy,  I believe that you do´..  in situations like that, you want to emphasis your opinion/action, so you use yo.

2. For really complex (or chaotic informal) sentences, where there could be confusion because of the use of infinitive verbs and lots of other pronouns. The example I remember was when someone was saying something, but quoting someone else.

[Kaynil]

I learned ( and this is just informal teaching).  You never need to use yo except for two situations

1.  You want to emphasis that you are different than something that was stated earlier.  For instance ´many people think they don´t need to exercise to be healthy,  I believe that you do´..  in situations like that, you want to emphasis your opinion/action, so you use yo.

2. For really complex (or chaotic informal) sentences, where there could be confusion because of the use of infinitive verbs and lots of other pronouns. The example I remember was when someone was saying something, but quoting someone else.

I am not sure I understood the second example, but it makes sense. I supose something like when you're saying what another person say yo emphatise with "Yo" what are your lines.

Alguien dijo "Me gustan los alambres", yo le dije "no te vayas a picar".

About the first one... yes! That is definitely a case you want to use "yo" on a second part of a sentence when you're bringing back the attention back to you, specially if you use prepositions to link them together. For example «sentence A» pero yo no estoy de acuerdo.

I guess all in all:

if you're starting a sentence, you may skip "yo".

If it is part of a connected sentence or a sentence with multiple congugations, use yo, just to be safe.

[czarina84]

In most cases the ''Yo'' isn't that necessary at all, but sometimes is added to reinforce what you are saying, like in this case: Yo soy espiritual.  The ''yo'' should really be there, at least to put more emphasis on that fact, but ''Soy espiritual'' is also fine, it sounds weaker tho. 

 

Don't worry about it, the ''yo'' is barely used most of the time, specially when the conversation is barely informal.

I just want to make sure I understand.  Are you saying to use "yo" in informal circumstances and to emphasize something?

[Mameha]

My language has almost the same grammar as Spanish, so i think i can say that "Yo soy" is more formal that only "Soy", The first one is used when you are introducing yourself to someone, for example "Hola, yo soy Mameha", or in general when you want to reinforce your point of view, or to recount something about yourself. The second one is less formal and is used for example when you call someone with the telephone (intercom too) and you say "Hola, soy Mameha" and start a conversation. This is used All this is the same for Italian

Speaking for me, both ways are correct (in the case of the telephone maybe isn't that correct tu say "Yo soy" to introduce) but i think that for a native speaker would be strange to hear "Yo soy" instead of "Soy" (i noticed a lot of people doing this in my language)