Spanish pronouns


Spanish pronouns in some ways work quite differently from their English counterparts. Subject pronouns are often omitted, and object pronouns can appear either as proclitics that come before the verb or enclitics attached to the end of it in different linguistic environments. There is also regional variation in the use of pronouns, particularly the use of the informal second-person singular vos and the informal second-person plural vosotros.

Personal pronouns

s in Spanish have distinct forms according to whether they stand for a subject, a direct object, an indirect object, or a reflexive object. Several pronouns further have special forms used after prepositions. Spanish is a pro-drop language with respect to subject pronouns. Like French and other languages with the T–V distinction, modern Spanish has a distinction in its second person pronouns that has no equivalent in modern English. Object pronouns are generally proclitic, and non-emphatic clitic doubling is most often found with dative clitics. The personal pronoun "vos" is used in some areas of Latin America, particularly in Central America, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, the state of Zulia in Venezuela, and the Andean regions of Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador.
The table below shows a cumulative list of personal pronouns from Peninsular, Latin American and Ladino Spanish. Ladino or Judaeo-Spanish, spoken by Sephardic Jews, is different from Latin American and Peninsular Spanish in that it retains rather archaic forms and usage of personal pronouns.
NumberPersonNominativeAccusativeDativeGenitivePrepositionalComitativeReflexive
Singular1styomememío/míamíconmigome
Singular2ndtú, vos¹tetetuyo/tuyati, vos¹contigo, con vos¹te
Singular3rdél/ella/ello, ustedlo/la, sele, sesuyo/suyaél/ella/ello, usted, sícon él/ella/ello, con usted, consigose
Plural1stnosotros/nosotrasnosnosnuestro/nuestranosotros/nosotrascon nosotros/nosotrasnos
Plural2ndvosotros/vosotrasos²os²vuestro/vuestra²vosotros/vosotras²con vosotros/vosotras²os
Plural3rdellos/ellas, ustedeslos/las, seles, sesuyo/suyaellos/ellas, ustedes, sícon ellos/ellas, con ustedes, consigose

1 Only in countries with voseo
2 Primarily in Spain; other countries use ustedes as the plural regardless of level of formality
Note: usted and ustedes'', above, are grammatically third person, even though they are functionally second person. See Spanish personal pronouns for more information on this, and on regional variation of pronoun use.

Demonstrative pronouns

According to a decision by the Real Academia in the 1960s, the accents on these forms are only to be used when necessary to avoid ambiguity with the demonstrative determiners. However, the normal educated standard is still as above. Foreign learners may safely adhere to either standard. There is furthermore never an accent on the neuter forms esto, eso and aquello, which do not have determiner equivalents.

Relative pronouns

The main relative pronoun in Spanish is que, from Latin QVID. Others include el cual, quien, and donde.

''Que''

Que covers "that", "which", "who", "whom" and the null pronoun in their functions of subject and direct-object relative pronouns:
Note from the last example that unlike with other relative pronouns, personal a does not have to be used with que when used as a personal direct object.

''El que''

When que is used as the object of a preposition, the definite article is added to it, and the resulting form inflects for number and gender, resulting in the forms el que, la que, los que, las que and the neuter lo que. Unlike in English, the preposition must go right before the relative pronoun "which" or "whom":
In some people's style of speaking, the definite article may be omitted after a, con and de in such usage, particularly when the antecedent is abstract or neuter:
After en, the definite article tends to be omitted if precise spatial location is not intended:
When used without a precise antecedent, lo que has a slightly different meaning from that of el que, and is usually used as the connotation of "that which" or "what":
The pronoun el cual can replace que. It is generally more emphatic and formal than que, and it always includes the definite article. It is derived from the Latin QVALIS, and it has the following forms: el cual, la cual, los cuales, las cuales, and the neuter lo cual. It can be used as a formal, emphatic replacement for que in non-defining clauses, for both subjects and direct objects, and it can also be used as a formal, emphatic replacement for el que as the object of some prepositions. Moreover, it is often preferred to el que entirely in certain contexts. In non-defining clauses, the fact that it agrees for gender and number can make it clearer to what it refers. The fact that it cannot be used as the subject or direct object in defining clauses also makes it clear that a defining clause is not intended:
When used as a personal direct object, personal a must be used:
In such situations as well as the object of monosyllabic prepositions, the use of el cual is generally purely a matter of high style. This is used sparingly in Spanish, and foreigners should thus avoid over-using it:
In more everyday style, this might be phrased as:
After multisyllabic prepositions and prepositional phrases, however, el cual is often preferred entirely:
El cual is further generally preferred entirely when, as the object of a preposition, it is separated from its antecedent by intervening words. The more words that intervene, the more the use of el cual is practically obligatory:
The bare form cual is used as the relative adjective, which only inflects for number:
The pronoun quien comes from the Latin QVEM, "whom", the accusative of QVIS, "who".
It too can replace que in certain circumstances. Like the English pronouns "who" and "whom", it can only be used to refer to people.
It is invariable for gender, and was originally invariable for number. However, by analogy with other words, the form quienes was invented. Quien as a plural form survives as an archaism that is now considered non-standard.

For subjects

It can represent a subject. In this case, it is rather formal and is largely restricted to non-defining clauses.
Unlike el cual, it does not inflect for gender, but it does inflect for number, and it also specifies that it does refer to a person:
Quien is particularly common as the object of a proposition when the clause is non-defining, but is also possible in defining clauses:
Donde is ultimately from a combination of the obsolete adverb onde and the preposition de. Onde is from Latin VNDE, which also meant "whence" or "from where", and over the centuries it lost the "from" meaning and came to mean just "where". This meant that, to say "whence" or "where from", the preposition de had to be added, and this gave d'onde. The meaning of d'onde once again eroded over time until it came to mean just "where", and prepositions therefore had to be added once more. This gave rise to the modern usage of donde for "where" and a donde for "to where", among others. Note that all this means that, etymologically speaking, de donde is the rather redundant "from from where", and a donde is the rather contradictory "to from where". This tendency goes even further with the vulgar form ande, which is often used to mean "where" as well. In the Ladino dialect of Spanish, the pronoun onde is still used, where donde still means "whence" or "where from", and in Latin America, isolated communities and rural areas retain this as well.
Como is from QVOMODO, "how", the ablative of QVI MODVS, "what way".
Cuando is from QVANDO, "when".

Location and movement

Donde can be used instead of other relative pronouns when location is referred to. Adonde is a variant that can be used when motion to the location is intended:
Como can be used instead of other relative pronouns when manner is referred to:
Note that mismo tends to require que:
Cuando tends to replace the use of other relative pronouns when time is referred, usually in non-defining clauses.
;Non-defining:
;Defining:
Note that just que, or at the most en que, is normal with defining clauses referring to time. En el que and cuando are rarer.

''Cuyo''

"Cuyo" is the formal Spanish equivalent for the English pronoun "whose." However, "cuyo" inflects for gender and number, cuya, or cuyas ) according to the word it precedes. For example:
"cuyo" in this example has changed to "cuyas" in order to match the condition of the following word, "calificaciones"
In Old Spanish there were interrogative forms, cúyo, cúya, cúyos, and cúyas, which are no longer used. ¿De quién...? is used instead.
In practice, cuyo is reserved to formal language. A periphrasis like Alejandro es un estudiante que tiene unas calificaciones siempre buenas is more common.
Alejandro es un estudiante que sus calificaciones son siempre buenas can also be found even if disapproved by prescriptivists.
Cuyo is from CVIVS, the genitive form of QVI.