Using ustedes and vosotros
Context: I'm having difficulty using "you". I need it to mean "you all" in the plural sense and I'd like it to mean a plural "you" not a singular "you".
I think I need to use the "vosotros" form?
Q1: Are these correct? Both language translations?
You all are studying a language. -- Todos estáis estudiando una lengua
All of you are studying a language. -- Todos estáis estudiando una lengua.
From the machine translators:
| Todos estáis estudiando.... | All are studying..... |
| All you are studying...... | |
| You all are studying...... |
Machine versus member suggestions:
| Todos estáis estudiando.... | All are studying..... |
| All you are studying...... | |
| You all are studying...... | |
| MyHeadAboveWater: | "all of you (plural) are studying" ...... |
7 Answers
"Todos estáis estudiando" would be "all of you (plural) are studying" "Estáis estudiando" means "you (plural) are studying"
"Vosotros" is simply "tú", plural, just like "ellos" is "él", plural.
So, "ellos están estudiando" doesn't mean "they are all studying" so much as it means "they are studying." You'd have to add "todos" to underscore something important about the fact that you mean all of them: "todos están estudiando." They aren't just studying. They are all studying.
Similarly, "vosotros estáis estudiando" means "you (plural) are studying", addressing a group of people (a group of yous), not just one (you). Add "todos" and you are specifically highlighting the fact that all of them are studying: "todos estáis estudiando." You (plural) aren't just studying, all of you (plural) are studying."
Just be careful when you mentally translate "vosotros" as "you all" that you make sure you know you mean "you (plural)" when you think of it because otherwise you might erroneously think vosotros is used to mean "todos vosotros", which is something else, just like "todos ellos" is. It's probably better to mentally think of vosotros as "you guys" if you need an English equivalent rather than a "you all". It won't inadvertently add a misused "todos" to the mix.
By the way, I actually said this very thing a few days ago. I came down to the kitchen to find all three of my kids studying. And I exclaimed, "Qué sorpresa! Estáis todos estudiando! Un milagro, por cierto."
Edited to add: Yes, vosotros as a commonly used form seems to be pretty confined to Spain, but it's extremely useful, and I have not had any trouble being understood by Spanish speakers from other countries, and living in the U.S., you can be sure that most Spanish speakers I encounter are not from Spain. I speak to people all the time from Mexico, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, Ecuador, Argentina, and Bolivia (among other places), and there's never a hitch whatsoever. I do sometimes get teased, though, if the person I'm speaking to is ALSO a good friend rather than just someone I'm speaking to in Spanish.
If you are anywhere except Spain, normally you would just use the "ustedes" form for the plural "you".
Ustedes estan estudiando.
I think your vosotros forms are correct, though.
Estáis is correct but I am not too sure whether you need the "todos".
Southerners in the U.S.A. use "you all" or "ya'll" for you plural, northerners use, "you guys, you people, or yous guys" in place of the plural 'you' to make it more clear. The vosotros or ustedes means 'you plural' so you don't need to add todos, except in the cases already mentioned above. We just add the 'all' in English to clarify who we mean when we say you (plural).
But, even in Spain, isn't vosotros used as a more personal form of the plural you (family, friends, etc.) whereas ustedes is also used for you plural but in a more distant way for those less well-known?
I never hear vosotros in the Americas except when the Reina Valera is read in church and for some old hymns, but it's used in Spain regularly.
Then there's vos, but I don't even want to think about that.
I also agree that "todos" should be used only if you mean to address every person present at that moment amd place. What I don't get is why you think you should use "vosotros", so I'll comment about it: for practical reasons it should be used with Spanish people only; the rest of us don't use it, except church/religious people, and many a Latin American won't even know the pronoun and its verb conjugations even existed, since it's being replaced by "ustedes", and only that, in the education system; the days when they taught us--my generation still learnt vostros and its verb forms- "vosotros" are gone, so clueless people abound.
As for the translation of the phrase, I say that if you want to stress the fact you're talking to everyone, you should not drop the pronoun:
Todos vosotros estáis.... All of you are...
Todos estáis... You all are..
That's the nuance I'd get
Thank you for all the wonderful responses. I am still thinking about "you all plural" which from what I've already studied and reading uses vosotros/as in Spain and other countries use "ustedes". My context is mixed so using "vosotros" might be a good idea.
Again, thanks to you all!
Una vez más, gracias a todos!
Both "ustedes" and "vosotros" will communciate the idea of a plural "you."
As you may or may not know, vosotros is used only in Spain while any other Spanish speaking country will substitute this pronoun with ustedes. I would personally go with ustedes, but if your audience might happen to be Spanish (as in from Spain), then I would go with vosotros.
Do you mean at this very moment though? As in, you all are studying a language right now in this very moment. If not, then you wouldn't use the present progressive, I believe. I'll await for some input.
You all study a language. Ustedes estudian una lengua. or Vosotros estudiáis una lengua.
All of you study a language. Todos ustedes estudian una lengua. or Todos vosotros estudiáis una lengua.
