Today we are going to learn how to use vos in Spanish!
Probably you are here because you just met somebody from Argentina, Uruguay or some country from Central America.
Maybe you wondered ‘What does vos mean in Spanish? Like… a boss?’
Vos is just another second person singular pronoun. The same as tú, but with its own forms.
‘Oh, no, more conjugations!’, you might say. But I promise it’s very easy to use!
Using vos instead of tú is a linguistic phenomenom called voseo, especially common in Argentina and Uruguay, but also widespread in certain regions of Latin America.
Learn how to vosear in Spanish at firsthand from an Argentine! Querés?
But first, a little bit of history…
Vos in Spanish: origins
The origins of vos date back to a few centuries ago in Spain. It was used to address people with a certain social status as a sign of respect.
On the other hand, tú was used in informal contexts, just the same as nowadays.
However, towards the end of the 15th century, people increasingly started using vos to treat people as equals without any kind of social distinction.
The expression vuestra merced‘ (usted, the formal second person singular pronoun) came to replace vos with its original meaning.
At the time, even Spaniards weren’t sure about which one they should use!
But finally usted became the proper form to show respect and vos fell into disuse.
Spaniards took the recent changes to the Spanish colonies in Latin America and people adopted them, except for those who lived in remote places far from the key trade areas with Spain!
They weren’t updated with the latest news coming from Spain, and as a result, they continued using vos with its informal meaning.
One of those places was the River Plate area!
Vos in Spanish: conjugations
First of all, vos has different forms only for the simple present tense and the imperative mood. Then , the conjugations are the same as the ones for tú.
So for example, in preterite and imperfect the forms are:
tú hablaste –> vos hablaste
tú hablabas –> vos hablabas
Vos in the present tense
Conjugating verbs in vos is pretty easy! For the present tense, follow these three steps:
1) Take an infinitive verb and remove the R: hablar –> habla
2) Now add an S: hablas
3) Finally, put the accent mark and stress the last syllable: hablás
That’s all! The same steps apply for all of the verbs in Spanish. Yes, even the irregular ones!
Let’s take three random irregular verbs: querer, jugar, and decir.
tú quieres –> vos querés
tú juegas –> vos jugás
tú dices –> vos decís
You see? Vos in Spanish is learner-friendly! The only two exceptions are ser and ir:
tú eres –> vos sos
tú vas –> vos vas
Vos in the imperative mood
For the imperative mood (used to express orders, instructions, give advice, etc.), it’s the same trick, but without adding an S.
1) Take an infinitive verb and remove the R: hablar –> habla
2) Put the accent mark and stress the last syllable: hablá.
And it’s done! The only exception is ir:
tú ve –> vos andá
Vos: prepositional pronoun
Prepositional pronouns are special forms of a personal pronoun that are used as the object of a preposition. In Spanish, the most common is ti, but in voseo, we use vos as well.
Esto es para ti. (= This is for you) –> Esto es para vos.
Quiero ir contigo. (= I want to go with you) –> Quiero ir con vos.
And that’s all for today!
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Thank you very much and until next time,
Kevin.