Why, that´s me.
Hi all,
If someone points to a picture, and asks who someone is, and that someone is you, how do you respond in Spanish? It´s confusing, because though in English it´salways going to get an ´is´ regardless of person (it is I, it is you, it is he etc etc) in Spanish, I don´t know if one would use ES or SOY.
Es yo? Soy yo?
thanks Roger
p.s. similarly, if one wanted to say, on the telephone ¨It´s me¨, how would that be expressed.
2 Answers
Is it I*? = "¿Soy yo?" if you ask it or "Soy yo", if you affirm it. If you are pointing to yourself in a picture, you must say "Ese soy yo" or "Este soy yo".
On the phone you may say:
If you are the one who dialed:
- "Habla Fulano", when there are confidence between you and the one at the other end of the line.
- "Habla Fulano de Tal", more formal, for business stuff.
- "Soy Fulano", when, for example, you're calling to a friend from a new cellphone number, or you're calling to someone to whom you didn't call for a long time.
Obviously if you were calling to your parents, girlfriend or friends you wouldn't have to say "Soy yo" or your name.
If you are receiving the call and they ask for you:
- "Él habla" or "Con él habla" or "ella" if that's the case.
Another scenario is this: You're knocking a door, then you usually would have to say "Soy yo" if they ask you "¿Quién es/toca?", or even just a long "Yo", supposing that the one inside knows your voice because you are knocking your own home's door. Maybe some people whould say their own name, but not the most. If you were knocking someone's else door, then you must say your name: "Soy Fulano, Fulano de Tal" or just "Fulano de Tal".
(*) According to Julian's correction. Originally I wrote "me" instead of "I".
Well, this has been interesting. I´d never have guessed it would start so much back and forth, but that´s great too, as I learn a lot from it too.
And we got to explore English, and one of it´s most common mis-uses.
Grammar definitely says is it should be ¨It is I¨ but that is almost never said in modern speech. We pretty much stick to ¨It´s me¨
Which is, I think, why I couldn´t begin to figure this one out myself. Very often, our own mis-usage in our own language interferes with learning another one. I´ve seen that a lot in other languages, and am just starting to be able to in Spanish.
Again, thanks for all the comments. Besides learning ¨Soy Yo¨ (which is not just hypothetical - we racers use it a lot when viewing grainy or otherwise unclear post-race footage for analyzing what happened and needing to clarify who is who) I also got to read a lot how one speaks about how one speaks.
Super helpful. As soon as exams and presentations are over next week (I can´t tell you how difficult a 10 minute presentation in Spanish still seems to a beginning (2nd semester) student, but it is VERY) I´m going to come back and read this over again and try to absorb more.
Muchísimas gracias a todas!
