Several years ago your teachers taught you about the subject of a sentence. They also taught you about verbs. We talk about the subject of a sentence performing the action of the sentence. That subject is the first part of understanding what a subject pronoun is. The second part is the word pronoun. In basic terms, a pronoun takes the place of a noun. So, instead of saying my brother we can change it to just say he. He is a pronoun replacing the noun brother. So let’s study the pronouns in Spanish:

 

I         

Yo

We

Nosotros

You (familiar)

Tú

You-all (familiar)*

Vosotros

He

Él

They (male or co-ed)

Ellos

She

Ella

They (all female)

Ellas

You (formal)

Usted (Ud.)

You-all (formal)*

Ustedes (Uds.)

* - The you-all (familiar) “vosotros” is mostly limited to Spain in its usage. In Latin America the pronoun ustedes is widely used for you-all whether it is formal or familiar. By the way, we recognize that you-all is not proper and formal English but it will be used throughout the course for the simplicity in distinguishing it from the singular you.

 

 

 

 

 

Credits: This podcast uses the following sound file from Freesound (https://www.freesound.org): News Background from Mansardian.