Regardless of if you learn Spanish as a second language in a classroom or with textbooks and websites alone, you’ve likely learnt that the predominant ways of saying “you” in Spanish are tú (informal) and usted (formal.) In much of Latin America, however, there is a third pronoun that can be used to refer to a singular “you”, and it is vos. The use of vos is much more varied than the use of tú, however, in some ways its usage can be much easier than tú.
Note: This post will primarily be discussing the most common forms of vos. Some countries like Chile have different conventions on how to conjugate verbs in the vos form, and some conjugations like the subjunctive can be very different between countries in the vos form.
🌸 Part I - What even is Voseo? 🌙
To start, let’s take a look at this map of Spanish speaking countries. Areas highlighted in light pink are areas where vos is used mainly in speaking and can be used alongside or in different contexts as tú. In areas highlighted in medium pink, the use of vos is mainly spoken and is more common than tú. And finally the areas highlighted in dark pink are areas where vos is used both in speaking and writing and has essentially replaced the use of tú.
You might immediately notice that in Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, and much of Bolivia, the pronoun vos has essentially replaced tú in both speaking and writing. The pronoun vos is often very indicative of Rioplatense Spanish (the Spanish spoken in Argentina and Uruguay,) and whereas in some countries the different between tú and vos can be a different of social classes like in Chile, in Rioplatense Spanish it is the most common second person singular pronoun.
In other countries, like Chile and parts of Central America, vos tends to be a used as a very familiar and intimate pronoun, and is only used with friends and family. In these cases, tú and usted often exist alongside vos, forming a three tiered system of formality depending on the country. In Honduras, for example, vos is the most informal of the three, often reserved for close friends and family, with tú expressing some familiarity but not full trust, and usted being used as the most formal pronoun.
🌸 Part II - Using Vos in a Sentence 🌙
The typical way of using pronouns in a sentence in Standard Spanish falls into a few categories: subject pronouns (when the pronoun is the person who does an action), direct object pronouns (when the pronoun is the person who an action happens to), indirect object pronouns (when the pronoun isn’t the person the action happens to but they are still indirectly affected), and prepositional pronouns (when the pronoun is used in conjunction with a word like para or con.)
With the pronoun tú, this pronoun declines to these forms:
Te lo doy (indirect object)
Lo hice para tí (prepositional)
Lo hice contigo (special con-form)
With the pronoun vos, on the other hand, some forms are the same, but some are different:
Te lo doy (indirect object)
Lo hice para vos (prepositional)
Lo hice con vos (con-form, same as prepositional form)
You’ll notice that in the object forms, the pronoun te can be used for both Voseo and Tuteo.
¿Qué tú quieres tomar? » ¿Qué vos querés tomar?
(What do you want to drink?)
¿Ella te ha dado el regalo?
(Has she given you the gift?)
Lo siento, no puedo ir a la fiesta contigo » Lo siento, no puedo ir a la fiesta con vos
(Sorry, I can’t go to the party with you)
Te quiero, mamá
(I love you, mom)
No te lo di porque tú ya lo tienes » No te lo di porque vos ya lo tenés
(I didn’t give it to you because you already have it)
Lo hice para tí porque te quiero » Lo hice para vos porque te quiero
(I did it for you because I love you)
🌸 Part III - Conjugating for Vos in the Present and Affirmative 🌙
As with most pronouns in Spanish, vos has a special conjugation form that needs to be followed when vos is the subject of a sentence. Luckily, however, some verb forms are the same as the tú form in some tenses, and the pronoun vos tends to have far less irregular verbs than the tú form.
In the present tense, vos is conjugated with three endings: -ar » -ás, -er » -és, -ir » -ís. Verbs conjugated in the vos form typically don’t have stem changers like they do in the tú form, so there is no o » ue, i » ie, e » i, o » u to worry about.
You’ll notice that aside from the verbs ser, ir, and haber, the vos form is very regular. In the preterite, imperfect, and future tenses, the vos form conjugates the same as the tú form, so there’s no need to worry about even more conjugations in the indicative mood.
To make affirmative commands in the vos form, simply remove the -s from the end of the present tense conjugation of vos.
Ir » andá (the imperative form of andar is used instead)
In the present-subjunctive conjugation, vos gets a bit trickier, in part because the subjunctive form for vos is very varied across areas that use voseo as opposed to the present-indicative which is pretty regular across areas that use voseo.
In Rioplatense Spanish, the typical tú form of the subjunctive is often used both for the tú and vos conjugations. So espero que duermas bien could be either tú or vos. In Central America, Bolivia, and areas of Colombia that use vos, the subjunctive is conjugated in 2 ways for vos. -ar stems gain the ending -és and -er/-ir stems gain the ending -ás. As well, in some stems ‘o’ will become ‘u’ and ‘e’ will become ‘i’. As well, stems that change in the yo-form (ex. tener » tengo, decir » digo) will also change in the subjunctive for vos (ex. tener » tengás, decir » digás.)
Haber » hayás (irregular)
Tener » tengás (irregular)
Saber » subás (irregular)
Decir » digás (irregular)
Sentir » sintás (irregular)
Dormir » durmás (irregular)
Pedir » pidás (irregular)
You’ll notice that in the subjunctive, the vos form is far more irregular than in the indicative. The present-subjunctive is also used to form negative commands in the vos form.
¡No lo comás! (don’t eat it)
¡No digás eso! (don’t say that!)
¡No durmás en clase! (don’t sleep in class!)
Disclaimer: I’m not a native speaker of Spanish, just a lover of the language. If there are any mistakes or things you think I missed please let me know so I can correct this post! 💖
