{"id":3271,"date":"2019-10-10T19:35:52","date_gmt":"2019-10-10T19:35:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.clozemaster.com\/blog\/?p=3271"},"modified":"2021-04-07T08:50:10","modified_gmt":"2021-04-07T08:50:10","slug":"spanish-personal-pronouns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.clozemaster.com\/blog\/spanish-personal-pronouns\/","title":{"rendered":"The Impossible Made Possible: An In-Depth Guide to Spanish Pronouns"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/h1>\n

Hi, my name is Suzie and I’ve been tasked with the impossible feat of describing all the Spanish pronouns to you. I won’t claim that it’s going to be easy \u2013 in fact, Spanish pronouns are one of the last things I fully understood about the language. But they are extremely necessary, and used daily in conversations, so it’s really important to learn them as much as you can!<\/p>\n

What is a pronoun?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Don’t feel silly if you don’t know what a pronoun is; many people don’t. Many other people think of pronouns as just words like me<\/em>, you<\/em>, him<\/em>, etc., but there is more to it than that. The best way to describe a pronoun is something that stands in the place of a noun in a sentence. A pronoun represents someone or something, without specifying exactly what it is.<\/p>\n

This vague definition is exactly why pronouns are so hard to define and some linguists debate about what is and isn’t one. That obviously doesn’t help you Spanish learners trying to get your head around the Spanish pronouns, though! So, let’s start with the basics for today, and look at the main, undisputed Spanish pronouns and how to use them.<\/p>\n

Subject and object personal pronouns in Spanish<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Let’s look at the main subject and object pronouns in Spanish, and then some frequent questions students have about them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\nSubject<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/td>\nObject<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
I<\/td>\nyo<\/td>\nme<\/td>\nme<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
you<\/td>\nt\u00fa<\/td>\nyou<\/td>\nte<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
you (formal)<\/td>\nusted<\/td>\nyou<\/td>\nle\/la\/lo<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
he<\/td>\n\u00e9l<\/td>\nhim<\/td>\nle\/lo<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
she<\/td>\nella<\/td>\nher<\/td>\nle\/la<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
we<\/td>\nnosotros\/as<\/td>\nus<\/td>\nnos<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
you (plural)<\/td>\nvosotros\/as<\/td>\nyou<\/td>\nos<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
you (formal\/plural)<\/td>\nustedes<\/td>\nyou<\/td>\nles\/las\/los<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
they<\/td>\nellos<\/td>\nthem<\/td>\nles\/los<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
they (females)<\/td>\nellas<\/td>\nthem<\/td>\nles\/las<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

How to know when to use subject and object pronouns in Spanish?<\/h3>\n

So, what is the difference between subject and object pronouns? The easiest way to understand it is to think of the difference between \u201cI\u201d and \u201cme\u201d in English. For example, we say \u201cI love dogs\u201d, but \u201cdogs love me\u201d. If we used the wrong pronoun in either case, the sentence would sound weird, right? That\u2019s because \u201cI\u201d always has to take the subject position (before the verb) and \u201cme\u201d always has to take the object position (after the verb).<\/p>\n

Other distinctions are he <\/em>vs. him<\/em>, she <\/em>vs. her<\/em>, we <\/em>vs. us<\/em>, and they <\/em>vs. them<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Spanish makes the exact same distinction as English between subjects and objects. Only Spanish takes it a bit further and distinguishes between subjects and objects of \u201cyou\u201d as well. This can cause some confusion for English natives, but if you remember it\u2019s the same as the difference between \u201cI\u201d and \u201cme\u201d, that should help you get your head around it!<\/p>\n

Where to put the object pronoun in Spanish?<\/h3>\n

Another thing that can cause confusion with the Spanish object pronouns, is their place in the sentence. In English, object pronouns will almost always come after the verb, but it\u2019s not the case in Spanish. Spanish object pronouns can appear before or after the verb, depending on the sentence structure.<\/p>\n

If the main verb is conjugated<\/em>, the object pronoun should come before verb. For example:<\/p>\n