Vosotros (or vosotras) is the second person, familiar plural in Spanish – its English equivalent would be “you all” – but this subject pronoun is rarely used anywhere outside of Spain itself. Most Latin America countries like Mexico, Panama, or Argentina may still teach vosotros in their schools or employ it in their written legal language, but Latin American speakers usually substitute the more formal ustedes in place of vosotros.
So if you’re one of the , this probably brings some good questions to mind:
The history of vosotros is actually quite interesting. During the 16th and 17th centuries, the cities of Seville and Cádiz, both on the southern end of Spain, maintained a trade monopoly with the American colonies. As such, many of the Spanish conquistadors came from these cities or through their ports on their way to the Americas.
Both Seville and Cádiz are part of a region of Spain called Andalucía, which maintains a unique dialect from the rest of Spain, including the substitution of ustedes for vosotros in both formal and informal situations. Many of the conquistadors adopted this method of Spanish speaking, and brought the distinct linguistic aspects of Andalucía with them to the new world.
Since vosotros wasn’t often spoken by the people in the Americas, its widespread use never really took hold there. The ocean-spanning distance between Spain and the Americas also allowed for some minor separation of the language to occur, similar to the differences that exist between American English and British English.
However, most children in Latin American schools are still taught the vosotros form. So why do these students, most of whom will never go to Spain, spend their time learning vosotros?
Lexikeet grappled with this very question early on when developing its Spanish language curriculum. We wondered if our learning product would be best served by breaking the language into two distinctions – Spanish (Latin America) and Spanish (Spain) – as other language learning software often does. However, things really aren’t so clear-cut.
While there are significant differences between the Spanish spoken in Spain and Latin America, there also exist many linguistic differences among the dozens of countries that comprise Latin America itself. We soon realized that good language teachers will always teach the most important language variations, denoting where that variation is used, and let the learner choose how he or she wants to use it.
The principle is similar in Latin American schools where children learn vosotros primarily because they need to know how to conjugate its verb forms and understand what it is when they hear it, which is becoming more and more likely in today’s interconnected world.
The Internet, for example, doesn’t limit any of us geographically anymore. Just because you’re not planning a trip to Spain anytime soon doesn’t mean you won’t encounter someone from Spain (online or in person), watch a TV show from Spain, or read one of the country’s newspapers.
Likewise, many pieces of Spanish literature (usually older texts) contain the vosotros form and understanding its use helps provide essential meanings to those texts. One of the more famous examples would be the Bible, which often uses vosotros as a way to indicate familiarity between individuals.
And if you happen to be a U.S. high school student studying Spanish, it’s important to note that the AP (Advanced Placement) language exam will test you on the vosotros form, despite the fact that you may live closer to Mexico than Spain.
Even if you don’t plan on using it much or spending any time in Spain, there really are lots of good reasons to learn vosotros in Spanish language learning. We’ve only touched on a handful of them, but this reason may just be the best:
Whenever you learn a language, it’s important to understand all aspects of it. That includes recognizing the differences between countries and cultures that share a common tongue. Doing so will not only improve your communication skills, but your comprehension as well.
That’s why when you , no matter if you all aprenden español or aprendéis español, you’ll learn vosotros alongside everything else that’s important!