Voseo: vos tenés, vos sos, vení

Spanish grammar changes by region in three main ways: vos for tú, ustedes for every plural you, and which past tense covers today. None of them is slang, and all are correct where they are used:

• Tú tienes razón. / Vos tenés razón. - You're right.
• Hoy he comido tarde. / Hoy comí tarde. - I ate late today.

Regional grammar at a glance

The whole picture. Spain's habit is in the solid blue box, the Latin American one in the dashed pink box.

Vos is not all of Latin America: most of Mexico, Peru and the Caribbean say tú.

Voseo: vos instead of tú

In Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, vos is the everyday informal you. It is common across Central America too, and heard in parts of Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia and Chile.

123

1. 1vos
2. 2usted
3. 3ustedes

In Buenos Aires: vos to a friend (2), usted to an older stranger (3), ustedes to a group (4), friends or not.

The present tense: drop the -r of the infinitive, add -s, and stress the last vowel.

Two things the table shows if you look twice. The stem does not change: tenés, not "tienés"; podés, not "puedés". And ser is the one big irregular: vos sos.

• ¿Vos sabés dónde está? - Do you know where it is?

Only the subject and the verb move. The object and the possessive stay as with tú; after a preposition, it is vos:

• Te quiero. - I love you. (as with tú)
• Es tu casa. - It's your house. (as with tú)
• Esto es para vos. - This is for you. (tú: para ti)

Voseo commands

The vos command is the infinitive minus its -r, with the stress on the last vowel. That makes most of the irregular tú commands regular:

• ¡Vení acá! - Come here!
• Decime la verdad. - Tell me the truth.

A pronoun joins the end as usual, and the accent then falls away because the stress stays put: decí plus me is decime. The exception is ir: the vos command is andá, from andar.