Please clarify use of dònde
What is the difference between: De dònde eres tù and: De dònde es usted I mean when would I use one and when the other? Please clarify.
1 Answer
Both of your sentences mean - Where are you from?
De = from
dónde = where
es/eres = are
tú/usted = you
Although in English we just have one 'you' in Spanish there is an informal you and a formal one (plus a plural one but lets not go there for now)
Tú is the informal 'you' and 'usted' is more formal.
Eres and es both come from the verb 'ser'/to be and they both mean 'are' but once again there is a formal and informal choice, eres/you goes with tú and is informal, es/you goes with usted and is formal.
This is how 'ser' looks when it's conjugated in the present tense:
SER: to be
Yo soy - I am
Tú eres - You are (informal)
Usted es - You are (formal), he is, she is, it is
Nosotros somos - We are
Ellos son - They are
Ustedes son - You (plural) are
It's important to note that although in English we always need to use the pronoun 'you'. Where are 'you' from? In Spanish the pronouns are commonly left out when it's obvious who you're talking about, and just the verb is used.
¿De dónde eres? (the tú isn't necessary as eres can only mean 'you are/are you'.
But ¿De dónde es Ud? the more formal version of 'where are are you from?' will often retain the 'usted' because ¿De dónde es? can also mean - Where is he from? Where is she from? and even Where is it from?
I hope that this helps
