Tú vs Usted in Spanish: Register, vosotros and ustedes

Spanish has two words for you to one person. Tú is for people you are close to; usted is for strangers, elders and officials:

• ¿Cómo estás? - How are you? (to a friend)
• ¿Cómo está usted? - How are you? (to an older stranger)

What usted actually signals

Usted signals distance and respect: you and this person are not close, or they are older, senior or someone you are serving. Tú signals closeness. The same greeting climbs from one to the other:

Usted is grammatically third person, so it takes the él form of the verb and the él pronouns:

• ¿Quieres un café? - Would you like a coffee? (to a friend)
• ¿Quiere un café? - Would you like a coffee? (to a customer)
• Usted tiene razón. - You're right.

Like any subject pronoun, usted is often left out once the context is clear: ¿Cómo está? Keep it when the verb alone could mean he or she:

• ¿Habla usted inglés? - Do you speak English?

When to use which

Spain has moved a long way towards tú, and young Spaniards use it with most people their age, shop staff included. Latin America is on the whole more formal, and in some families children say usted to their parents.

The plural split: vosotros or ustedes

For more than one person, geography decides. Spain keeps the informal vosotros; Latin America uses ustedes for every group:

Ustedes takes the ellos form of the verb, just as usted takes the él form:

• Tenéis razón. - You're right. (to friends, in Spain)
• Tienen razón. - You're right. (to any group in Latin America, or strangers in Spain)

123

1. 1tú
2. 2usted
3. 3ustedes

A friend gets tú, an older stranger usted, and a family she does not know ustedes. To a group of friends, Spain would say vosotros.

The possessives split the same way:

Learners of Latin American Spanish can leave vosotros out of their own speech, but should still recognise it: Spanish films, books and songs are full of it. Parts of Latin America, Argentina among them, also replace tú with vos (vos tenés); that is on regional grammar.

Tutear: moving from usted to tú

Two people often start with usted and move to tú. Spanish has a verb for it: tutear, to call someone tú. The invitation sounds like this:

• Puedes tutearme. - You can call me tú.
• Trátame de tú, por favor. - Please call me tú.
• ¿Nos tuteamos? - Shall we use tú?

Take the offer. Carrying on with usted after it sounds cold rather than polite. Moving back from tú to usted is rare and pointed: it puts distance back on purpose.

Getting it wrong

Both directions cost something:

• Perdone, ¿tiene hora? - Excuse me, have you got the time? (to an older stranger, not ¿tienes hora?)
• ¿Tienes hora? - Have you got the time? (to someone your age)

Register in writing

An email picks a register in its first word. Keep the greeting, the verbs and the sign-off in the same one:

A formal Spanish letter opens with a colon, not a comma: Estimada señora:. An email that opens with Estimada señora: and signs off Un abrazo jars as much as switching from usted to tú mid-sentence.

Mistakes English speakers make

What to do next

1. Start with usted for adults you do not know.
2. Learn each tú form with its usted pair: tienes, tiene.
3. Then formal commands, where usted gives instructions, and object pronouns for le and te.