Beginning Spanish ¡Empecemos por aquí!

18 •  Chapter 1: La clase de español Alternative forms Vos sos Vosotros sois Subject pronouns are not used as often in Spanish as they are in English. The reason for this is that Spanish verbs are conjugated to contain information about the subject. For example, soy means “I am.” It is not necessary to add yo because soy could not work with any other subject; it has to be yo . I might choose to add yo for emphasis: “¿Eres de Chicago? ¡Yo soy de Chicago!” Since the third person forms of verbs could correspond with multiple subjects, you are more likely to need to use third person pronouns for clarity. For example, if I have just introduced a male friend and a female friend to you, and you ask me where they are from (“¿De dónde son?”), I will add subject pronouns for clarity: “Ella es de Seattle y él es de San Diego.” You will frequently use the pronoun usted in order to clarify that you are speaking to someone and not about someone: “Usted es profesor, ¿verdad?” Unlike English, which allows a singular use for they , Spanish does not have a widely accepted pronoun for people who are nonbinary. It is best to find out from that person which pronouns you should use to describe them, but if you do not have that information, you can omit the pronoun. You can also use words like persona to avoid unnecessarily assigning gender: “Es estudiante. Es de Arizona. Es una persona inteligente y atlética.” ( Atlética is feminine because persona is a feminine word; the person’s gender has not been established.) Ser and estar are two different verbs that both translate as “to be.” They are not interchangeable. For now, use ser when describing identity and where someone is from: “Soy profesora” and “Soy de Portland.” Use estar to talk about how someone is feeling: “¿Cómo estás?” and “Estoy muy bien, gracias.” We will continue to learn more uses for ser and estar . Estar (to be) Yo estoy Tú estás Ella, él, usted está Nosotras, nosotros estamos Ellas, ellos, ustedes están Alternative forms Vos estás Vosotros estáis Whew! That was a lot of grammar information! Remember to check out the learning objectives at the end of each Lengua section. They can help keep the learning process in perspective and pre- vent the sense of overwhelm that you might experience if you expected yourself to be an expert on ser and estar already.