Voseo in Spanish Grammar

Forms of Voseo

There are two different kinds of voseo – one in Spain and one in Latin America. Only the Latin American voseo is still actively used.

Latin American Voseo

The Latin American version of voseo is often used instead of tú or usted. The accompanying verb usually has a special form.

Example:

Vos sos idéntico. Vos tenés su misma cara.You look just like him. You have the same face.

Instead of vosotros for the 2nd person plural, Latin American Spanish uses ustedes. Unlike Peninsular Spanish, it is not unique to polite or formal situations, but can be used in familiar contexts.

Example:

¿Ustedes tienen hambre?Are you hungry?

Regional Variation

The voseo is used differently in different regions:

• Pure voseo (voseo absoluto): pronoun vos with the voseo form of the verb

Example:

vos podés

• voseo pronominal: pronoun tú followed by the voseo form of the verb

Example:

tú podés

• voseo verbal: pronoun vos followed by the tú-conjugation of the verb

Example:

vos puedes

Pronouns with Pure Voseo

We only use vos to replace the forms tú and ti. The pronoun forms te, tu and tuyo remain unchanged.

Example:

Sí, te hablo a vos. ¿Es este tu bolso?Yes, I’m talking to you. Is this your bag?

Vos te levantaste de mal humor.You woke up in a bad mood.

Verbs with Pure Voseo

When using voseo, we normally use the regular verb ending for the 2nd person plural. However, there can be variations depending on the tense, geographical location and societal factors.

Here, we’ll list the most important of these variations.

Present Indicative and Subjunctive

To conjugate voseo forms in the present indicative and present subjunctive, we generally take the 2nd person plural and simply remove the -i. However, sometimes the -e is removed, and very rarely, the entire diphthong remains unchanged.

Example:

present indicative → vos ponés
rarely: vos ponís or vos ponéis

present subjunctive → vos pongás
rarely: vos pongís or vos pongáis

For -ar verbs, however, the a in the present indicative cannot be removed.

Example:

present indicative → vos hablás
rarely: vos habláis
incorrect: vos hablís

Imperfect Indicative and Subjunctive

To conjugate voseo forms in the imperfect indicative and imperfect subjunctive, the 2nd person singular is used.

Example:

imperfect indicative → vos cantabas

imperfect subjunctive → vos cantaras

In Chile, it is also possible to use the 2nd person plural and simply remove the last -s.

Example:

vos cantabai (not: vos cantabais)

vos cantarai (not: vos cantarais)

Preterite

To conjugate the voseo forms for the preterite, we take the 2nd person plural and remove the -i. In some regions, the final -s is also removed.

Example:

vos volvistes or vos volviste

In the Venezuelan Andes and in Colombia there is another variation, in which the first -s in the verb is removed while the final -s remains.

Example:

vos volvites

Future

To conjugate voseo forms in the future tense, we usually take the 2nd person plural and remove the -i. However, sometimes the -e is removed instead, and very rarely, the entire diphthong remains unchanged.

Example:

vos viajarés
less common: vos viajarís or vos viajaréis

Conditional

To conjugate voseo forms in the conditional, we take the ending of the 2nd person singular.

Example:

vos soñarías

In Chile, however, you can also use the 2nd person plural and simply remove the final -s.

Example:

vos soñaríai (not: vos soñaríais)

Imperative

To conjugate voseo forms in the imperative, we remove the -d from the 2nd person plural.

Example:

mirá (instead of mirad)

poné (instead of poned)

escribí (instead of escribid)

In Chile is the imperative form identical to the Spanish version.

Example:

mira (tú)

Indicative Forms of Voseo by Country