How to Say “You” in Spanish

Ways to say it

Which one should you use?

Use tú for friends, family and peers. Use usted to show respect or maintain distance with strangers, elders or superiors.

Is there a formal and an informal way to say it?

tú and vos are familiar and informal forms. usted is the polite and formal form.

Is it said differently in some regions?

In parts of Latin America, such as Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and parts of Central America, the regional variation known as voseo uses vos instead of tú.

Related words

The individual or group spoken/written to (det): tú, vos, usted.

To address using the more formal second-person pronoun (verb): ustedear, vosear.

How does it change in a sentence?

The pronoun tú requires verbs to be conjugated in the second-person singular informal form. Although usted means "you", it uses the third-person singular verb conjugation (the same as él or ella).

How do you pronounce it?

/ˈtu/

What mistakes should you avoid?

English speakers often confuse the subject pronoun tú (you) with the possessive adjective tu (your), which does not have an accent mark.

When do people say it?

In many Spanish-speaking cultures, using usted with someone you have just met is a sign of politeness and social etiquette.