Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
[b] In the Ladino of Sephardic Jews, the only second person plural is vozotros (i.e. there is no ustedes, as in standard Spanish). [9] Throughout Latin America, the second person plural pronoun ustedes is almost always used orally in both formal (singular usted) and informal (singular tú/vos) contexts.
The boundaries between formal and informal language differ from language to language, as well as within social groups of the speakers of a given language. In some circumstances, it is not unusual to call other people by first name and the respectful form, or last name and familiar form.
In Costa Rica and part of Colombia, usted is used as the common pronoun, using it both in formal and informal situations. In the second-person plural, modern Spanish speakers in most of Spain employ vosotros (masculine) and vosotras (feminine) informally and (as the third-person plural) ustedes to express respect.
The formal second-person pronouns (usted, ustedes) take third-person verb forms. The second-person familiar plural is expressed in most of Spain with the pronoun vosotros and its characteristic verb forms (e.g., coméis 'you eat'), while in Latin American Spanish it merges with the formal second-person plural (e.g., ustedes comen).
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 (example of quesuismo ) can also be found even if disapproved by prescriptivists .
The formal usted and ustedes, although semantically second person, take verb forms identical with those of the third person, singular and plural respectively, since they are derived from the third-person expressions vuestra merced and vuestras mercedes ('your grace[s]').
(²) Ustedes is used throughout all of Latin America for both the familiar and formal. In Spain, it is used only in formal speech for the second person plural. Although apparently there is just a stress shift (from amas to amás), the origin of such a stress is the loss of the diphthong of the ancient vos inflection from vos amáis to vos amás.
Ustedes functions as formal and informal second-person plural in all of Hispanic America, the Canary Islands, and parts of Andalusia. It agrees with verbs in the 3rd person plural. Most of Spain maintains the formal/familiar distinction with ustedes and vosotros respectively.