SER and SUBJECT PRONOUNS

1
SER and SUBJECT PRONOUNS
2

• Do you know whats meant by 1st person, 2nd
  person, 3rd person?
• 1st person is the person who is speaking I
• 2nd is the person to whom one is speaking you
• 3rd is the person about whom one is speaking --
  he,
• 
  she, it
• I, you, he, she, it are all singular pronouns.
  Each refers to one person. But we also have
  plural pronouns
• 1st person plural I another person we
• 2nd person plural you another person yall
• 3rd person plural he/she/it another person
  they

3

• These pronouns are called SUBJECT PRONOUNS
• I we
• you yall
• he, she, it they
• What that means is that these pronouns are used
  as the SUBJECT of the sentence
• I read a book. (Not Me read a book.)
• You read a book. (Not Your read a book.)
• He reads a book. (Not Him reads a book.)

4

• singular
  plural
• 1st person I we
• 2nd person you yall
• 3rd person he, she, it they
• Pronouns are always, always, ALWAYS in this
  order. When you learn pronouns in any language,
  this is the order in which youll find them.
  When you learn the verbs that go with the
  pronouns, the verbs will always, always, ALWAYS
  be in this order.

5

• singular
  plural
• 1st person _____ ______
• 2nd person _____ ______
• 3rd person _____ ______
• Question How often are pronouns found in this
  
• order?
• Answer Always, always, ALWAYS.

6

• Click here to go to a brief practice exercise.

7

• Following are the Spanish subject pronouns
• yo nosotros
• tú vosotros
• él, ella ellos
• They correspond to the English subject pronouns
• I we
• you yall
• he, she they

8

• Spanish has two additional pronouns usted (Ud.)
  and ustedes (Uds.).
• Ud. means you.
• Uds. means yall.
• Ud. is used with people to whom you should show
  respect, people who are older than you are or in
  a position of authority. Its pretty safe to say
  that if you call the person Mr./Mrs./Ms./Miss/Dr./
  Prof. last name rather than by his first name,
  you should use Ud. rather than tú. If you
  call the person by his first name, you should
  probably use tú with him.
• Uds. is used in Spain to show respect just like
  Ud. is. However, vosotros, the familiar form
  you use with friends (people you address by their
  first name), doesnt exist in Latin America, and
  they use Uds. no matter who theyre talking to.

9

• In spite of the fact that Ud. means the same
  thing tú does (you), its treated like a
  third person pronoun
• yo nosotros
• tú vosotros
• él, ella, Ud. ellos
• What that means is that anything that applies to
  the third person (like verb endings and OBJECT
  pronouns) also applies to Ud.

10

• The same is true of Uds. Even though it means
  the same thing as vosotros (yall), it goes
  with the 3rd person plural
• yo nosotros
• tú vosotros
• él, ella, Ud. ellos, Uds.

11

• One more note about subject pronouns the
• -os in three of them can change to as if
• every member of the group is female
• yo nosotros, nosotras
• tú vosotros, vosotras
• él, ella, Ud. ellos, ellas, Uds.

12
SER

• Ser means to be. Its the most irregular
  verb there is in both English and Spanish.
• am are
• are are
• is are
• soy somos
• eres sois
• es son

13

• I we am are
• you yall are are
• he, she they is are
• yo nosotros soy somos
• tú vosotros eres sois
• él, ella ellos es son
• Just as I takes the verb thats in its position
  (am), yo takes the verb thats in its
  position (soy). In other words, yo soy is I
  am, tú eres is you are, etc.

14

• However, you dont have to use the pronouns.
  Look at the Spanish forms of ser
• soy somos
• eres sois
• es son
• All of them are different. So soy all by
  itself means I am. Soy alto means I am
  tall. Eres all by itself means you are.
  Soy can never mean anything but I am, and
  eres can never mean anything but you are.
  You never have to use a subject pronoun in
  Spanish, because when you look at the verb, you
  know what the subject has to be.
• If you say yo soy, it doesnt mean I am it
  means I am. In other words, it emphasizes the
  pronoun. However, you can say él es or ella
  es or Ud. es or ellos son or Uds. son to
  clarify the subject. That is, soy can mean
  only I am, so the only time you use yo is if
  you want to emphasize it, but es can mean he
  is, she is, or you are, so you can use the
  pronoun to show whether you mean he, she, or
  you.

15

• In your homework, Ill give you a subject and a
  blank. Youll put in the correct form of ser
• Ellos _______
• Juan _______ (Note Juan is the same as
  él.)
• Elena y yo ______ (Note Elena y yo is the same
  as nosotros.)
• Ud. ___________
• Tú ___________

son
es
somos
es
eres
16

• Click here to go to your ser homework.