On day 4, I explained a little bit about the differences between the two Spanish "to be" verbs, "ser" and "estar", and gave some examples of ways to use "es" (from ser) and "está" (from estar).
"Es" and "está" will allow you to talk about what outsiders ARE: i.e, what "he", "she", and "it" IS and what "you (outsider(s))" ARE.
What if you want to talk about what "we" are, or what "they" are, or "I" am, or "you (insider)" are? Well, then you will need to learn a little more Spanish.
This table presents, in bold text, the main personal subject pronouns of the Spanish language:
| SINGULAR = 1 | PLURAL = 2+ | |
| I. ONESELF | yo (I) | nosotros, nosotras (we) |
| II. INSIDERS | tú (you [e.g., friend, child, coworker]) | vosotros, vosotras (you guys, y'all) |
| III. OUTSIDERS | él (he), ella (she), usted (you [e.g., boss, stranger]) | ellos (they), ellas (they), ustedes (you guys, y'all) |
I say "main" personal subject pronouns because there is one missing here. In many countries of Latin America, the word "tú" is replaced by "vos" (which is not the same as vosotros!!!; it is the "same" as tú). If you plan to travel to Central America or Argentina, you will need to learn how to use vos instead of tú. We'll talk about vos later, but it is important to hear about it now.
Notice that there are two columns in these tables. The singular column is for when you are talking about one person or thing; the plural column is for when you are talking about more than one person or thing.
I used to struggle to explain why "you" shows up in both the second row and in the third row of these tables. The table rows are traditionally labeled "1st person", "2nd person", and "3rd person", which is what you will see everywhere else, but to me it doesn't make sense that what is strictly "2nd person" in English (the word "you") should show up as both "2nd person" and "3rd person" in Spanish! Not much fun to teach something that nonsensical, either. (I do understand the historical reasons, so don't e-mail me about those. I get it.)
I am hoping that my new classification will make more sense to you:
The first row is for talking about yourself (either alone (yo [I]), or with others (nosotros, nosotras [we])).
The second row is for talking to people who are close to you (and whom you are talking to directly) (your friend(s), your family member(s), your coworker(s), etc.)
The third row is for talking about people or things in some way not close to you, like those people or things "over there" whom you are not talking to directly (he, she, it, they) or the stranger/superior/outsider you are talking to (your boss, a client, someone much older than you).
So no longer 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person, but:
I. oneself
II. insiders (when you are talking directly to them)
III. outsiders.
This next table shows the ways to "conjugate" (change) the verb "ser" depending on who or what is being described:
| SER (to be) | SINGULAR = 1 | PLURAL = 2+ |
| I. ONESELF | soy | somos |
| II. INSIDERS | eres | sois |
| III. OUTSIDERS | es | son |
Pronunciations:
SOY, SOH-mohs
EH-rehs, SOYSS
EHSS, SOHN
And here is a similar table for the verb "estar":
| ESTAR (to be) | SINGULAR = 1 | PLURAL = 2+ |
| I. ONESELF | estoy | estamos |
| II. INSIDERS | estás | estáis |
| III. OUTSIDERS | está | están |
Pronunciations:
ehs-TOY, ehs-TAH-mos
ehs-TAHSS, ehs-T"EYE"SS
ehs-TAH, ehs-TAHN
If you copy down or print out these three tables and compare them to anything written in Spanish, you should find many of these words, especially the ser and estar conjugations, almost everywhere you look.
Here are those three tables again, without all the intervening text:
| SINGULAR = 1 | PLURAL = 2+ | |
| I. ONESELF | yo (I) | nosotros, nosotras (we) |
| II. INSIDERS | tú (you [e.g., friend, child, coworker]) | vosotros, vosotras (you guys, y'all) |
| III. OUTSIDERS | él (he), ella (she), usted (you [e.g., boss, stranger]) | ellos (they), ellas (they), ustedes (you guys, y'all) |
| SER (to be) | SINGULAR = 1 | PLURAL = 2+ |
| I. ONESELF | soy | somos |
| II. INSIDERS | eres | sois |
| III. OUTSIDERS | es | son |
| ESTAR (to be) | SINGULAR = 1 | PLURAL = 2+ |
| I. ONESELF | estoy | estamos |
| II. INSIDERS | estás | estáis |
| III. OUTSIDERS | está | están |
