You’d think that saying ‘you‘ would be pretty straight forward wouldn’t you? However, it’s not quite the case in Spanish. This is because there is more than one way to address the person you are talking to and it’s all about how formal or informal you want to be. Read on to learn more!
When to use ‘tú’ and when to use ‘usted’:
It goes without saying that we should speak to our elders, people of authority (police/doctors/teachers) and those of a higher ranking (at work for example) with extra respect. This is the same for all languages.
In English we use our tone of voice and say ‘please’ a lot to show respect, politeness and manners when speaking. This is why, in old-school stereotypical depictions of British people, we are wearing bowler hats, have long umbrellas or canes and we say ‘Good day old chum’ to everyone… I’m thinking Mary Poppins type films here!
However, in Spanish, they don’t have to rely so much on tone and the over use of ‘please’. They have USTED!
‘Usted‘ is just an alternative to using ‘tú‘. However, you don’t just swap them over and that’s that.
If you think about verb formation/conjugation, keep in mind that when saying ‘you______’ the verb (doing word) usually ends in ‘S‘.
For example:
| Present | Tú comes queso. | You eat cheese. You are eating cheese. |
| Near future | Tú vas a comer queso. | You are going to eat cheese. |
| Simple future | Tú comerás queso. | You will eat cheese. |
| Conditional | Tú comerías queso. | You would eat cheese. |
| Imperfect | Tú comías queso. | You used to eat cheese. You were eating cheese. |
| Present Perfect | Tú has comido queso. | You have eaten cheese. |
The only one that doesn’t end in ‘S’ is the preterite:
| Preterite tense | Tu comiste queso. | You ate cheese. |
Here is a quick tip that will work most of the time when using USTED:
When you want to show respect or politeness, instead of saying ‘tú’ you should say ‘usted’ and then take off the ‘S‘. It would leave:
| Present | Usted come queso. | You eat cheese./ You are eating cheese. (Polite form) |
| Near future | Usted va a comer queso. | You are going to eat cheese. (Polite form) |
| Simple future | Usted comerá queso. | You will eat cheese. (Polite form) |
| Conditional | Usted comería queso. | You would eat cheese. (Polite form) |
| Imperfect | Usted comía queso. | You used to eat cheese./ You were eating cheese. (Polite form) |
| Present Perfect | Usted ha comido queso. | You have eaten cheese. (Polite form) |
Hold on! Isn’t this the same verb form/conjugation for ‘él/ella’ (he/she/it)?
Yes!!
In fact, my Simple Spanish Tip above (where you just take off the ‘s‘) is not the actual grammar rule. It’s just a cheat that works most of the time. The actual rule is that ‘usted’ copies the ‘él/ella’ formation.
This is another reason why we need the optional ‘él/ella’ and now ‘usted’ to stick in front of the verb… to avoid confusion, because in reality:
‘Come queso’ could mean:
- You eat cheese.
- He eats cheese.
- She eats cheese.
- It* eats cheese.
| *We don’t have separate little word like ‘él/ella’ for ‘it‘. As every noun (person/place/thing) has a gender, when we want to say ‘it’, for example when talking about an animal, we would just choose ‘he’ or ‘she’ according to the gender of the animal. |
One thing to note:
We don’t tend to use these the small words like ‘I/you/he/she/we/they‘ etc in Spanish that much, because the end of the verb does the job of showing who we are talking about. However, you will notice that ‘usted‘ does often get used along with the verb and this is to avoid confusion between you/he/she/it and make it very clear that the speaker is being polite.
So what if you are speaking to more than one person and you need to be polite?
Well, as you know, the rule isn’t actually ‘just take off the s’ (it’s just a Simple Spanish Tip). If fact, you copy the ‘he/she/it’ formation of the verb.
If speaking to more than one person and you need to show respect and politeness, instead of saying ‘vosotros/as‘, you say ‘ustedes‘ and you use the same verb formation/conjugation as you do for ‘ellos/ellas’ (they).
Here are some examples:
| Present | Ustedes comen queso. | All of you eat cheese./ All of you are eating cheese. (Polite form) |
| Near future | Ustedes van a comer queso. | All of you are going to eat cheese. (Polite form) |
| Simple future | Ustedes comerán queso. | All of you will eat cheese. (Polite form) |
| Conditional | Ustedes comerían queso. | All of you would eat cheese. (Polite form) |
| Imperfect | Ustedes comían queso. | All of you used to eat cheese./ All of you were eating cheese. (Polite form) |
| Present Perfect | Ustedes han comido queso. | All of you have eaten cheese. (Polite form) |
Or another cheeky ‘Simple Spanish Tip’ for using ‘ustedes’… just add ‘n’ to the verb form you used for ‘Usted’!
- Usted come queso = You eat cheese (polite)
- Ustedes comen queso = All of you eat cheese (polite)
A final point:
This is how ‘usted‘ and ‘ustedes‘ work about 95% of the time in Spanish… copy the ‘él/ella’ or the ‘ellos/ellas’ formation.
It does get a bit more complex when using the ‘Command/ Imperative tense’, which is used to boss people around and say ‘do this’ and ‘don’t do that’.
For now, just roll with it, as the command tense is a bit tricky generally and ‘usted/ustedes’ will definitely be dealt with again when you learn the ‘Imperative/Command Tense’.
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