What does vosotros mean?
I am in spanish 2, in high school, and I our teacher does not teach the word vosotros or what it means. She never lets us use it, she said they use it in Spain, or formal or something. Can someone inform me?
11 Answers
Jason is correct, it means you-all (informal). It is a verb form used more comonly in Spain. It represents a form of conjugation. Your teacher is teaching North American Spanish where the form is not commonly used. The forms are typically taught in the following order when vosotros is included.
yo
tú
Ud., él, ella, el
nosotros
vosotros
Uds., ellos, ellas
You can see the form in the conjugation chart for the word "hablar" here
Vosotros is you-all (plural) informal, not formal.
Yes, it is used mostly in Spain, but that shouldn't mean that you ignore it. Though you might not wish to give it the priority that you do the formal construction, you should be able to recognize it when you see it. It similar to the voseo of the Southern Cone countries (and a few others). Its use isn't normally taught in detail, but the fact that it exists isn't ignored. You need to be able to recognize it when you run across it.
Just because imaginary numbers aren't used daily, doesn't mean mathematics hides their existence. They have their useful application. I'm sure all of the millions of Spaniards that use the vosotros form wouldn't appreciate being dismissed offhand. What will you do when you have to use resource material printed in Spain?
My Spanish teacher doesn't teach the vosotros form either. She says that if we ever go to Spain, we will be using the ustedes form out of respect. She says we won't know the people in Spain well enough to use the vosotros form when we talk to them.
My high school teacher said the same thing about the "tú" forms. The first two weeks that I was in Mexico were mostly devoted to learning to "tutear".
Qfreed, I hope you didn't think I was implying that we were to ignore Vosotros. On the contrary, when I was taught the conjugation of verbs Vosotros was very much a part of the learning (I was 100% positive it was formal---hey you learn something new everyday). 
I have one up on some of my native spanish speakers because they rarely use the Vosotros tense. I like throwing it in to change things up. 
My Spanish teacher doesn't teach the vosotros form either. She says that if we ever go to Spain, we will be using the ustedes form out of respect. She says we won't know the people in Spain well enough to use the vosotros form when we talk to them. This may be true, but I am learning the vosotros form anyway.
My teacher has said that it means 'you all', although I am in spanish one. I do not see why your teacher would ever omit something like this.
My high-school Spanish teacher did the same thing. I guess she figured she could teach us more Spanish in a year by omitting that verb form, and it would be useful in the majority of the Spanish-speaking world.
The thing is, it's just not that much more to learn that form of the verb, and Spain is not an incidental country when it comes to Spanish. I think it should be taught.
It means you-all formal. It is typically used in Spain, if I am not mistaken. I am sure the gurus will weigh in soon!!
READ BELOW! Vosotros DOES NOT mean "you all" - it means YOU. It is a familiar form of address. Let me give you some examples and "insert" you instead of you all and it will make sense.
vosotros , as pron (esp Esp)
1 (sujeto) you (familiar form of address)
vosotros vendréis conmigo you'll come with me
hacedlo vosotros mismos do it yourselves
2 (después de prep, en comparaciones) you
lo he comprado para vosotros I've bought it for you
¿no pedís nada para vosotros? aren't you going to ask for anything for yourselves?
lo han hecho mejor que vosotras they've done it better than you
irán sin vosotros they'll go without you
The word vosotros means you all.
yo all
