Subject pronouns: yo, tú, usted, vosotros…

A “subject pronoun” is a word like “I” or “she” that stands for the person doing the action (the “subject”). Spanish has more words for “you” than English, and separate masculine and feminine forms for “we” and “they”.

Use tú with friends, family, children and people your age in relaxed situations. Use usted to be polite: with strangers, older people, and in formal situations. In Spain people switch to tú quickly, even at work. If someone says puedes tutearme, they are inviting you to use tú.

Usted and ustedes are often written Ud. and Uds. They take the same verb forms as “he / she” and “they”.

In Spain, vosotros is the informal “you” for several people and ustedes is the polite one. In Latin America, vosotros isn't used at all: ustedes is the only plural “you”, for friends and strangers alike.

So a Spaniard asks friends ¿Qué queréis?, while a Mexican asks ¿Qué quieren? Both are correct. Parts of Latin America (for example Argentina) also use vos instead of tú.

The verb ending already shows who is doing the action, so Spanish usually drops the pronoun: Hablo español is enough for “I speak Spanish”. Add the pronoun for emphasis or contrast, or when it would be unclear (for example él, ella and usted share the same verb form).