Glossika spanish sucks how to#

There are currently two main theories as to why this distinction came to exist History played its part in the origin of Spanish’s usted, too. Thou eventually started falling out of use in the first half of the 1600's, and from there would completely fall out of use in most dialects, leaving you as English’s only second-person pronoun. In the 1400's there was a shift because aristocratic people started using plural pronouns to refer to themselves (e.g., “We are most displeased” or “We ask ourself”) - as a result, you started sounding formal and distant, whereas thou was used with people you are close with. In Middle English thou was singular, while you was plural. Now, you might be surprised, but English used to have a formal form of you, too.

The answer is mostly related to register (how formal or informal you behave in a given situation), but in other contexts usted might also be used to communicate respect and politeness. You might be wondering why Spanish speakers need this extra word when in English you get by just fine with one. Photo by National Cancer Institute / Unsplash Why do we need two words for this? Students would use usted when addressing their teacher, for example. On the contrary, usted is used to show respect to older people or even to acknowledge that the person you are talking to is of a different social status or position within a hierarchy. In most Latin American countries we only use tú with family members, friends, or people we estimate are of a similar age and social status as us. In English tú and usted both translate to “you.” The main difference between these two words is that usted is only used to address people formally.

In Spanish, unlike English, we have a formal and informal way of addressing people: the second person tú conjugation of verbs is used in more informal situations, and the third person singular usted conjugation in more formal ones.

Glossika spanish sucks how to#

You’re just starting out on your language journey… then you Google how to say “how are you?” and realize there’s more than one way to say you in Spanish.įear not, in this article you’ll learn why Spanish needs two words for you, when each is used, and how to use them properly.