Spanish Pronouns

Subject Pronouns - Possessive Adjectives - Possessive Pronouns - Prepositional Pronouns - Reflexive Pronouns

Direct Object Pronouns - Indirect Object Pronouns - Indirect and Direct Pronouns Together

Spanish Subject Pronouns

A subject is the person or thing that does the action of a verb. A subject pronoun is a word that takes the place of the subject.

     Example:
     Juan corre. → Él corre.
     (John runs. → He runs.)

Spanish Subject Pronouns
Subject Pronoun	Translation	Sentence Example
yo	I	Yo corro (I run.)
tú	you (informal, singular)	Tú corres. (You run.)
usted	you (formal, singular)	Usted corre. (You run.)
él	he	Él corre. (He runs.)
ella	she	Ella corre. (She runs.)
nosotros (masculine), nosotras (feminine)	we	Nosotros corremos. (We run.)
vosotros (masculine), vosotras (feminine) Used in Spain only	you (informal, plural)	Vosotros corréis. (You run.)
ustedes	you (plural)	Ustedes corren. (You run.)
ellos (masculine), ellas (feminine)	they	Ellos corren. (They run.)

Note: Unlike English, Spanish has formal and informal forms of "you." The more formal version would be used with people in a position of authority, such as teachers, police officers or your boss at work. It would also be used to show respect, such as with older people. The singular formal "you" form is "usted," while the singular informal "you" is "tú." In some Latin American countries, they use "vos" for the singular informal "you," instead of "tú." In Latin America, "ustedes" is the plural form of "you" in all situations (formal and informal). In Spain, however, they use "vosotros" or the feminine "vosotras" in informal situations.

You will notice that there are masculine and feminine forms of some pronouns. If you are referring to a group of all men or boys or a mixed group (men and women), you would use the masculine form (such as "nosotros" or "ellos"). If you are referring to a group of all women or girls, you would use the feminine form (such as "nosotras" or "ellas").

Spanish Possessive Adjectives

Possessive adjectives are used with a noun to identify who something belongs to ("mi libro" = "my book"). The possessive adjective has to agree in number (singular or plural) with the noun that it is used with ("mi libro" vs. "mis libros"). When using a possessive adjective that has different gender forms (masculine and feminine), the possessive adjective also has to agree in gender ("nuestro libro" vs. "nuestra casa").

Spanish Possessive Adjectives
Singular	Plural	Translation	Sentence example
mi	mis	my	Es mi libro. Son mis libros.
tu	tus	your (informal singular)	Es tu libro. Son tus libros.
su	sus	your (formal singular, plural), his, her, their	Es su libro. Son sus libros.
nuestro, nuestra	nuestros, nuestras	our	Es nuestro libro. Son nuestros libros.
vuestro, vuestra	vuestros, vuestras	your (informal plural, used in Spain only)	Es vuestro libro. Son vuestros libros.

Spanish Possessive Pronouns

Possessive pronouns describe who something belongs to. While possessive adjectives are used together with the noun ("my books"), possessive pronouns are not used with the noun ("mine"). They are used in contexts where the noun is already understood. For example, we already know that we are referring to books. The possessive pronoun needs to agree in number (singular vs. plural) and gender (masculine vs. feminine) with the noun that it is replacing (mis libros → míos, su casa → suya).

Spanish Possessive Pronouns
Singular	Plural	Translation	Sentence example
mío, mía	míos, mías	mine	El libro es mío. Los libros son míos.
tuyo, tuya	tuyos, tuyas	yours (informal singular)	El libro es tuyo. Los libros son tuyos.
suyo, suya	suyos, suyas	yours (formal singular, plural), his, hers, theirs	El libro es suyo. Los libros son suyos.
nuestro, nuestra	nuestros, nuestras	ours	El libro es nuestro. Los libros son nuestros.
vuestro, vuestra	vuestros, vuestras	yours (informal plural, used in Spain only)	El libro es vuestro. Los libros son vuestros.

Spanish Prepositional Pronouns

Prepositional pronouns are pronouns that are used after a preposition. All of the prepositional pronouns in Spanish are identical to the subject pronouns except for two forms (in bold in the table below).

Spanish Prepositional Pronouns
Prepositional Pronoun	Translation	Sentence Example
mí	I	El regalo es para mí. (The gift is for me.)
ti	you (informal, singular)	El regalo es para ti.
usted	you (formal, singular)	El regalo es para usted.
él	him	El regalo es para él.
ella	her	El regalo es para ella.
nosotros (masculine), nosotras (feminine)	us	El regalo es para nosotros.
vosotros (masculine), vosotras (feminine) Used in Spain only	you (informal, plural)	El regalo es para vosotros.
ustedes	you (plural)	El regalo es para ustedes.
ellos (masculine), ellas (feminine)	them	El regalo es para ellos.

Spanish Reflexive Pronouns

Reflexive pronouns are used when the subject and object of the verb are the same person or people. For example, if you say, "I hurt myself," you are the one doing the action of the verb (doing the hurting) and also receiving the action of the verb (getting hurt). These are the pronouns which end in -self or -selves in English. Spanish uses reflexive pronouns with more verbs than English. For example, with the verb "bañar" (bathe) and "despertar" (wake up), a reflexive pronoun is used in Spanish (but not in English).

Me bañé.
(I bathed. -or- I took a bath.)

Me desperté a las 7:00.
(I woke up at 7:00.)

Spanish Reflexive Pronouns
Reflexive Pronoun	Translation	Sentence example
me	myself	Me lastimé. (I hurt myself.)
te	yourself (informal singular)	Te lastimaste. (You hurt yourself.)
se	himself, herself, yourself (formal), themselves, yourselves	Él se lastimó. (He hurt himself.)
nos	ourselves	Nos lastimamos. (We hurt ourselves.)
os	yourselves (informal, used in Spain only)	Os lastimasteis. (You hurt yourselves.)

Spanish Direct Object Pronouns

Direct objects receive the action of the verb. For example, in the sentence "She threw the ball." The ball is receiving the action of the verb (throw). Direct object pronouns replace the direct object with a pronoun ("She threw it.") In Spanish direct object pronouns need to agree in gender (masculine vs. feminine) and number (singular vs. plural) with the noun that they are replacing. In Spanish direct object pronouns are generally placed before the verb.

     Ella tiró la pelota. → Ella la tiró.
     (She threw the ball. → She threw it.)

     Ella recogió las flores. → Ella las recogió.
     (She picked the flowers. → She picked them.)

Direct objects can instead (optionally) be attached to the end of present participles or infinitives. Present participles are verbs that end in -ando or -iendo in Spanish (-ing in English) such as "hablando" (speaking) or "corriendo" (running). Infinitives are verbs in their basic form. These verbs end in -ar, -er or -ir in Spanish, such as "hablar" (to speak), "correr" (to run) or "escribir" (to write). If the stress of the verb would change with the addition of the direct object, you must add an accent to retain the correct pronunciation of the verb.

Ella está recogiendo las flores. → Ella las está recogiendo. -or- Ella está recogiéndolas.
(She is picking the flowers. → She is picking them.)

With affirmative commands direct objects must be attached to the end of the verb. With negative commands, however, the direct object must go before the verb (after the "no").

     Affirmative Command:
     Toma la medicina → Tómala
     (Take the medicine. → Take it.)

     Negative Command:
     No tomes la medicina. → No la tomes.
     (Don't take the medicine. → Don't take it.)

Spanish Direct Object Pronouns
Direct Object Pronoun	Translation	Sentence example
me	me	Él me llamó. (He called me.)
te	you (informal singular)	Él te llamó. (He called you.)
lo, la	him, her, it	Él la llamó. (He called her.)
los, las	them	Él los llamó. (He called them.)
nos	us	Él nos llamó. (He called us.)
os	you (informal plural, used in Spain only)	Él os llamó. (He called you.)

Spanish Indirect Object Pronouns

Indirect objects tell who received the action of the verb (the person or people). For example, in the sentence, "I gave her the flowers," "her" is the indirect object (the one receiving the flowers in this case). In Spanish the placement rules for indirect objects are the same as the rules described above for direct objects.

Indirect object pronouns go before the verb.

Él nos ayudó.
(He helped us.)

Indirect objects can instead (optionally) be attached to the end of present participles or infinitives.

     Él nos está ayudando. -or- Él está ayudándonos.
     (He is helping us.)

     Él nos va a ayudar. -or- Él va a ayudárnos.
     (He is going to help us.)

With affirmative commands indirect objects must be attached to the end of the verb. With negative commands the indirect object must go before the verb (after the "no").

     Affirmative Command:
     Ayúdanos.
     (Help us.)

     Negative Command:
     No nos ayudes.
     (Don't help us.)

Unlike English, in Spanish you must use an indirect object pronoun even if you specify the person (like "a ella" in the example below).

Él le dio a ella un regalo.
(He gave her a gift.)

Spanish Indirect Object Pronouns
Indirect Object Pronoun	Translation	Sentence example
me	me (or "to me")	Él me dio un regalo. (He gave me a gift.)
te	you (or "to you") informal singular	Él te dio un regalo.
le	him, her, you (formal singular) (or "to him," "to her,” “to you”)	Él le dio un regalo.
les	them, you (plural) (or "to them," "to you")	Él les dio un regalo.
nos	us (or "to us")	Él nos dio un regalo.
os	you (or "to you") informal plural, used in Spain only	Él os dio un regalo.

Spanish Indirect and Direct Pronouns Together

When you use both types of object pronouns together, the indirect object pronoun goes first and the direct object pronoun goes second.

Ella me lo dio.
(She gave it to me.)

When indirect and direct objects are used together, they can also be added to the end of present participles and infinitive verbs.

     Ella me lo está dando. -or- Ella está dándomelo.
     (She is giving it to me.)

     Ella me lo va a dar. -or- Ella va a dármelo.
     (She is going to give it to me.)

When the indirect object "le" or "les" is used together with a direct object, it changes to "se."

Ella se lo dio.
Ella va a dárselo.

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