Curso → Level 1 · Primeros pasos → Lección 7
Level 1 · Lesson 7 Nosotros y ustedes
We and you all
Somos, sois, son: las personas del plural. Ustedes en América, vosotros en España.
The plural persons of ser, and why ustedes works everywhere while vosotros is Spanish.
Escucha · Listen
En español y en España
Good morning, sir. Marta and I are students.
Pleased to meet you. We're teachers.
And them? Are they students?
Yes, they're students. Those men are teachers.
Are you all students of Spanish?
Sorry, sir… 'vosotros'?
In Spain, vosotros sois. In Mexico, ustedes son.
Thank you! Yes: we are students of Spanish.
Explicación · Explanation
El plural de ser: nosotros somos, vosotros sois, ustedes son, ellos son, ellas son. Y el plural de estar: nosotros estamos, vosotros estáis, ustedes están.
Three new forms of ser and you have the whole verb: somos (we), sois (you all, Spain only) and son, which covers ustedes, ellos and ellas alike — the same economy you met with es. estar behaves the same way: estamos, estáis, están. Notice that ustedes travels with the third person again, exactly as usted did.
«Ustedes» va con dos o más personas en todo el mundo hispano. «Vosotros» va con dos o más amigos, y solo en España.
This is the one grammatical border that really divides the Spanish-speaking world. Across all of Latin America ustedes is the only plural 'you' — to friends and to strangers alike — and it is also the plural in the Canary Islands and much of western Andalusia. In the rest of Spain, ustedes stays polite and vosotros does the friendly work: vosotros sois. Learn ustedes first: it is understood everywhere.
Un grupo de mujeres: nosotras, vosotras, ellas. Un grupo con un hombre: nosotros, vosotros, ellos.
These pronouns have a feminine set — nosotras, vosotras, ellas — used when every person in the group is a woman, which is why Ana corrects herself to nosotras somos. Add one man and Spanish switches to the masculine: nosotros, ellos. That rule reaches far beyond pronouns, and level 3 will follow it out into nouns and adjectives.
Vocabulario · Vocabulary
| Palabra | Meaning | Nota · Note |
|---|---|---|
| nosotros | we | solo mujeres: nosotras |
| vosotros | you all (informal) | solo en España; mujeres: vosotras |
| ustedes | you all | en todo el mundo hispano |
| ellos | they (men, or mixed) | |
| ellas | they (women) |
Práctica · Practice
Ponlo en práctica · Use it
Ahora hablas tú, en voz alta. Con tu grupo: «Nosotros somos …» o «Nosotras somos …». Con dos personas: «¿Ustedes son …?». Y en España: «¿Vosotros sois …?».
Say the plural of ser out loud six times over — somos, sois, son — and then use it: describe your own group with nosotros somos or nosotras somos, ask two people a question with ustedes son, and try the same question once with vosotros sois to hear how Spain would say it.