Spanish · Chapter 41 · Lesson 8 · Grammar primer
Register: tu vs usted, vosotros vs ustedes
The social choice every sentence forces: what usted really signals (distance, respect, service), how it shifts the verb and pronouns, and the regional split where Latin America drops vosotros for ustedes.
The short version
Usted takes third-person verbs
Usted is not simply a polite you. It drags the verb into the third person, so it is usted tiene razón, never usted tienes, and it swaps te and tu for le and su. With an adult you do not know, start formal and let them bring you down: over-formality is easy to walk back, over-familiarity leaves a mark.
¿Cómo se llama usted?
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