38
submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by wendyz@piefed.social to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

Hola,

I'm a native Spanish speaker from Spain (I live in the U.S., spoke English all my life with a native English speaking father and my English could be better than my Spanish). Since I am Spanish, we use vosotros. While I heard people in the U.S. learn "ustedes comen", I would say "vosotros coméis".

all 31 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] rbn@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 day ago

German here. I learned tú (informal), usted (formal), vosotros (informal) and ustedes (formal). Teacher was from Spain.

[-] atheqtpie@piefed.blahaj.zone 22 points 2 days ago

USA, they taught us that vosotros was used in Spain but that's it. They saw it inefficient as the Spanish speakers around us and the majority of Spanish speakers didn't use vosotros.

[-] 404found@lemmy.zip 8 points 2 days ago

I've been learning Spanish on my own and what I've learned agrees with what you stated.

Vosotros is a dialect of Spain, but it's rarely used outside of Spain.

[-] wendyz@piefed.social 7 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Interesante, pero tienen razón

[-] teawrecks@sopuli.xyz 1 points 2 days ago

Yep, it was in the textbook, but just like the Barthalona lisp, it was basically a bit of trivia we were never expected to actually learn.

[-] BeckyStjerne@nord.pub 19 points 2 days ago

Learning Spanish in school, USA. No, we learn "ustedes" for "y'all".

[-] uuj8za@piefed.social 8 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Half of the US used to be Mexico, so US Spanish is mostly Mexican Spanish. We don't use vosotros. My high school Spanish teacher (yes, I took it because it was easy) would always skip conjugations of vosotros entirely.

I don't think I've ever heard anyone use vosotros here. We understand it, but it's very uncommon. Univisión, Telemundo, Estrella, TeleXitos all mostly use Mexican Spanish. Same goes for the radio.

[-] sundaylab@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 days ago

I was living in Spain for 25 years and there we would definitely use vosotros. Ustedes is used in middle and South America.

[-] JoMiran@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 days ago

I believe it is common in some South American countries. Uruguay is one IIRC.

[-] diemartin@sh.itjust.works 6 points 2 days ago

Uruguayan here.

Even though we learn(ed?) the conjugations as "yo como, tú comes, él come, nosotros comemos, vosotros coméis, ellos comen", Uruguayan Spanish uses neither "tú" ("vos" in informal contexts, and "usted" in formal contexts), nor "vosotros" (we use "ustedes").

So in actual everyday talk is "yo como, vos comés (*), él come, nosotros comemos, ustedes comen, ellos comen".

(*) Note the accent, I recently learned it's commonly called voseo rioplatense, or more formally, Español rioplatense.

[-] ninjahedgehog@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

En Argentina es lo mismo

[-] Mothra@mander.xyz 3 points 2 days ago

Uso "ustedes", pero por supuesto que sé conjugar vosotros. Tal vez cometo algún error ya que no tengo costumbre de usarlo, pero sí, te lo enseñan en la escuela junto con todos los demás pronombres personales.

[-] communism@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 days ago

I was taught vosotros but I learnt in a country closer to Spain than to LatAm. I think they mentioned ustedes in later parts of the course but vosotros was the standard second person plural pronoun we were taught.

[-] A_cook_not_a_chef@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago

Through high school we learned both. I took Spanish all 4 years, but had different teachers throughout that time. Most tests and oral exams would allow either, but I do remember some looking specifically for ustedes.

In university we mostly used ustedes, but I had a professor from Spain who would use vosotros. He never expected us to use it but everyone was expected to understand it when reading or in conversation.

[-] TheMadCodger@piefed.social 3 points 2 days ago

Uso "vosotros" pero vivía en España cuando aprendí. Pero la verdad es no estoy seguro de cómo se usa "usted" y me da miedo preguntar. 😂

[-] LogicalDrivel@sopuli.xyz 2 points 2 days ago

I was taught both, but i think my teacher only taught vosotros because he was from Spain. I don't remember it being in the actual book we used.

[-] neon_nova@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 days ago

Over 20 years ago when I was in high school its was taught slightly. I think it was just to make us aware of it. But we did not focus on it at all if I remember correctly.

[-] teft@piefed.social 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I learned spanish in colombia. I learned the vos conjugation (it's the best since it's so easy to conjugate) but never learned vosotros because they don't really use it where I live.

Soy de los EEUU pero vivo en Medellin.

[-] wendyz@piefed.social 2 points 2 days ago

¡Qué interesante! Vivo en los EEUU como ya dije, jeje

[-] reallykindasorta@slrpnk.net 3 points 2 days ago

US midwest — I was taught both versions in school but we focused more on latin american/mexican spanish which more people around us spoke.

[-] electric_nan@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 days ago

I'm in my 40's, but I still remember my middle-school Spanish lessons: soy, eres, es, somos, sois, son. Of course, we were informed that the 'vosotros' form was particular to Spain.

Literally nobody has ever used vosotros outside of spain. I have heard "vuestra merced" in telenovelas lol

[-] orc_princess@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 day ago

We learn it in school here in Argentina, but never use it outside of that context

[-] LeapSecond@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 days ago

Equatorial guinea and the Philippines would like a word.

[-] wendyz@piefed.social 2 points 2 days ago

Tienes razón

[-] JoMiran@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Vosotros for the old world.
Ustedes for the new.

Personally, I think its time to let Vosotros die.

[-] wendyz@piefed.social 4 points 2 days ago

Hmmm, probablemente tienes razón. Yo, personalmente, uso "vosotros" y "ustedes" pero depende de con quién esté hablando.

[-] AZERTY@feddit.nl 0 points 2 days ago

Castellano is the word we use to describe what they are taught in Spain, and Latin American Spanish is what we usually just call Spanish.

[-] orc_princess@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 day ago

"Castellano" is the word used for Spanish in general in many countries in Latin America though

[-] teft@piefed.social 2 points 2 days ago

Nah, ambas terminas son correctas pero la RAE recomienda usar “español”.

this post was submitted on 24 Mar 2026
38 points (100.0% liked)

Asklemmy

53704 readers
29 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 7 years ago
MODERATORS