Vosotros

[sillylucy]

Does anyone have a good chart or example of using vosotros? It is taught in high school and we have to learn it, but Mexican speakers don't really use it. I know a lot of my friends from Spain, Argentina and Chile use it, but I forgot how to since high school. Thanks!  :grin:

[MyDigitalpoint]

I don't know as of today in modern education, but in Mexico verb conjugation is the same as in Spain and any other Spanish speaking nation.

This is, a verb is conjugated for yo, tú (usted), él/ella, nosotros, vosotros, ellos.

However in México native speaker don't use "vosotros" out of the classrooms, and neither in other Latin American countries.

In Argentina, Chile, and Paraguay (meanly) it's used a variant of vosotros, shortened as "vos"

Vosotros is mostly used solely in Spain, but regardless the country, vosotros is an alternative form for "ustedes" and -- in the case of "vos" -- is used for either ustedes or tú (usted)

[Sness]

I posted this in another thread:

In Spain theres is "vosotros" (familiarity, informal) and "ustedes" (respect, formal), but in Latin America there is only "ustedes", even when there is a formal (usted) and informal (tú) way for the second person singular.

So, the use of vosotros is not the same as the voseo used in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, etc. The "vos" used in Argentina is a replace of the pronoun tú, but it has a different conjugation.

Here in Chile we use a verbal voseo, is very informal and its use in writing language is not OK. We use the pronoun tú instead of vos but we maintain (sort of) the conjugation of the voseo. We also use "vo" as a somewhat derogatory way of tú.

• Vosotros - Plural, informal. Used in Spain | Vosotros teneís que aprender
  
• Vosotros - Plural, formal. Scarcely used in some parts of Latin America in writing.
  
• Ustedes - Plural, formal. Used in Spain. | Ustedes tienen que aprender
  
• Ustedes - Plural, informal and formal. Used in Latin America.
  
• Vos - Singular, informal and formal. Used in Argentina. | Vos tenés que aprender
  
• Vo - Singular, informal. Used in Chile. Derogative form of tú. | Voh/tú tení que aprender
  

[limon]

Huh, I knew about the others but had never heard the Chilean one, that is very good to know!

It would have sounded more formal to me, since "vos" sounds vaguely archaic to a Spaniard in the same way that "thou" might to an American, so I would never have guessed it was derogatory.

[MyDigitalpoint]

Here is a full explanation chart with verb conjugation examples, as verbs are modified by this noun,

What is Vosotros?

Vosotros is a subject pronoun used only in Spain. It is one of four subject pronouns in Spanish that are translated as you.

It and its own unique verb forms are used to address a group of two or more persons.  It is informal, and is used in situations in which all persons being addressed are ones that speaker would address individually as tú.

Latin American speakers use ustedes in all situations, formal and informal, when addressing two or more persons.

There is a feminine form vosotras.  As with nosotras and ellas, it is used only when the group referred to is all female.  Vosotros, as with ellos and nosotros, is used when group is all male or mixed.

As with any subject pronoun, vosotros/as is omitted when not desired for emphais or clarity.

In addition to verb forms, there are possessive forms and object pronouns that correspond to vosotros.  See below...

Further reading is here, http://www.indiana.edu/~spangram/GENGRAM/vosotros.html

[SmartPea85]

I am a little upset that in high school Spanish courses my teachers informed us we didn't "really have to" learn vosotros because it wasn't used that much, or as much as the others, but now as an adult I see it keep popping up with some regularity,and it's never at the front of my conjugating brain.

I can see how it's formality would be linked to the old English words like "thee" and "thou", which we never use either, so I can understand why some teachers might not find it absolutely necessary to focus on. But if people are still using it today in Spanish-speaking countries around the world it should be learned and taught along with all the other conjugations. Is it strictly used in formal settings, or with important people you don't know? How is is different from Usted?

[Rosyrain]

Vosotros killed me in college and I almost failed as a result.  It is so confusing to try and get the tenses right in the Spanish language.  Is there an online study app that makes learning the different uses of the Spanish language a little more simplified?

[2times]

when I learned it i did not learn vosotros. i guess my spanish teacher was from mexico because she said she has never ever used it in her life besides when she absolutely had to.  :vampire:

i always wondered why people did not use vosotros and just forgot about it like it did not exist.  :nerd:

[Onfroi]

The main reason why teachers don't teach vosotros anymore is because #1 the word it's not used in exams and #2 only Spain (most of the time) uses the word frequently.

[Trellum]

As far as I know ''vosotros'' is only used in Spain, it basically mean ''Ustedes'', sometimes ''Vosotras'' is used as well, it's the feminine form   In Latin America they only use ''Vos'', but never vosotros and many countries in Latin America don't even use ''Vos''.

[OddVisions]

Question: You are awoken at 3 A.M. by a knock on your door. Your parents call you to let you know that they are there for breakfast. You are confused but quickly think of what food you have. You have bread, jam, butter, and eggs. What do you open first?

[ImMrCuriosity]

Question: You are awoken at 3 A.M. by a knock on your door. Your parents call you to let you know that they are there for breakfast. You are confused but quickly think of what food you have. You have bread, jam, butter, and eggs. What do you open first?

What do I open first? My eyes! hahahha

[OddVisions]

Nosotros and vosotros are basically similar with the exception that vosotros is informal and used far less often. In most places, you should be okay for just using Nosotros. To go into deeper detail, it's sort of like saying 'our' or 'we' depending on which you use according to my old Spanish teacher; but I've never trusted her translations much.