Language/Spanish/Grammar/Be-Polite

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How to Be Polite?

Languages can be a wonderful key to meet people from other parts of the world. But we have to remember that this also means to meet people with different culture backgrounds and we cannot ignore that culture when we are speaking a foreign language. For example, in many languages the way we speak has to change according to the level of respect we have towards our listener, and that's the case in Spanish too. So in this article it will be shown how this works and how you can apply it when you talk with a Spanish-speaking person.

The Informal and Formal pronouns
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Good news for you Spanish learner!

In the Spanish language only the second person singular is modified because of this politeness rule. This means that you only need to get used and pay attention to the singular "you". So it may be easier than you expected!

The second person singular pronoun in Spanish is (vos in some regions). And its formal form is usted. So there are only three pronouns we have to take into account for this:

  • , Vos
  • Usted

When should you use them?
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Pronoun Usage description
Tú / Vos These pronouns are usually used with people who are around your age or younger than you, with children or people who have a close relationship with you (such as friends or relatives).
Usted Generally, we use this pronoun when we are talking to an elder person, people who have some authority or importance (a boss, a professor and so on), people we are not so close with or in formal contexts.


The possesive pronouns
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Possesive pronouns (you, yours) are also different depending on whether we use / vos or usted.


Pronoun Possessive pronouns Example
Tú / Vos Tu(s), tuyo(s) ¿Esta es tu carpeta? (Is this your (informal) folder?)
Usted Su(s), suyo(s) ¿Esta es su carpeta? (Is this your (formal) folder?)


TIP: Gramatically speaking, whenever we use usted our speech is to change from the second person to the third person. This means that whenever we use usted instead of we are going to speak like we were talikg about él or ella.

The verb conjugations
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According to the tip shown in the previous section, we have to switch from second to third person when we are using usted, and this is also applied to the verb conjugations in any tense. For example, these would be the conjugations for the verb ser (to be).


Pronoun Present Simple past Future
Tú / Vos Eres / sos Fuiste Serás
Usted Es Fue Será


If you already have some Spanish knowledge, you may have confirmed by yourself that the conjugations for usted are exactly the same as for él and ella (third person).

Pronoun Present Simple past Future
Él / ella Es Fue Será


And this same rule works for any tense.

Videos[edit | edit source]

Good Manners - How to be polite in Spanish - YouTube[edit | edit source]

Other Lessons[edit | edit source]

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