When/How Do I Use Pronouns?
¡Hola! I have 2 and a half weeks to study the material on the requirement list for my new school in Quito, Ecuador (ISM)! Now, on the list, it says Pronoun Classification. The classes for pronouns are shown in the following list:
- Number (singular, plural)
- Person (1st, 2nd, 3rd)
- Gender (female, male)
- Formality (formal, formality)
(Please tell me if I'm missing any!)
Anyways, I was on the Spanish Grammar lesson for Subject Pronoun, and it said in a yellow box "when in doubt, don't use it". Okay, so what do I do now? When do I use it? And how does it look like in a sentence? Can I see an example of a sentence with a pronoun and without.
8 Answers
Yo, tú and nosotros verb conjugations are unique and can only apply to those pronouns so you rarely use the relevant pronoun.
Yo vivo aquí. I live here.
Vivo aquí. I live here.
Vivo can only mean 'I live' so there's not a lot of point using the 'yo'.
But when it comes to él, ella, usted, ustedes and ellos they share verb conjugations so you often use the pronoun to make sure your hearer knows who you're talking about.
Vive aquí. Can mean you (usted, formal you), él or ella, so it's often necessary to use the appropriate pronoun to remove any ambiguity (unless of course it's totally clear from other context.)
Ella vive aquí. She lives here.
Él vive aquí. He lives here.
Usted vive aquí. You live here.
Same with ustedes and ellos.
Viven aquí. Could mean 'you' (pl.) or 'they' live here.
Ustedes viven aquí. You (pl.) live here.
Ellos viven aquí. They live here.
I hope that makes things clearer for you.
When you do need it is to emphasize like i just did in English.
hice una torta!
yo hice una torta!
c?
Coppola did not draw the title, "Bram Stoker's Dracula" out of a hat.
Not one of the ten or twenty greatest films of all time, but first class--perhaps even a bit more.
"In some ways, 'telegram style' was the precursor to the modern language abbreviations employed in 'texting' or the use of short message standard (SMS) services such as Twitter. On telegrams, space was at a premium—economically speaking—and abbreviations were used as a matter of necessity...."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telegram_style
Merely by the way, Stoker was the first to use telegrams as a literary device, and in effect the first to recognize the influence of the new technology on language.
Pronouns are forms that stand in place of nouns. In English there are many ways to avoid the use of pronouns. One of them, for example, is to use the nouns for which they substitute:
(1) "'Curly is going to Ecuador', said Curly."
Another is to dispense with nouns and pronouns as subjects of the verb:
(2) "Said: 'Am going to Ecuador'."
In English the second way was never common, save perhaps in telegrams, though stray and taciturn English-speakers sometimes may seem to approach that style.
In English, there are verb forms specific to one grammatical person--"am", for example. Many others are not--"went", for example.
Spanish is exactly like English in this regard, save that there are more verb forms that in themselves identify specific persons without the use of an added pronoun. It is repeated ad nauseam that that is the main or only reason pronouns are not used with various verb forms in Spanish, but that is nonsense. That is one reason but there are many others. Sorrily that would take a long dissertation ranging back to the Late Roman Empire to explain in detail and mainly to persons having no interest in the subject whatever, however much it may concern them and their various usages.
*Telegrama de van Helsing a Seward, en Carfax
(Enviado a Carfax, Sussex, ya que no mencionaba ningún condado; entregado con veintidós horas de retraso.)
17 de septiembre. No deje de estar hoy por la noche en Hillingham. Si no observando todo el tiempo, visitando frecuentemente y viendo que las flores estén colocadas; muy importante; no falle. Estaré con usted tan pronto como posible después de llegada.*
[tr. ed. El Trauko Chile]
TELEGRAM, VAN HELSING, ANTWERP, TO SEWARD, CARFAX
(Sent to Carfax, Sussex, as no county given, delivered late by twenty-two hours.)
17 September.--Do not fail to be at Hilllingham tonight. If not watching all the time, frequently visit and see that flowers are as placed, very important, do not fail. Shall be with you as soon as possible after arrival.
[Stoker]
A: Hard day.
B: Yup.
A: Pretty sunset.
B: Yup.
A: Supper soon?
B: Yup.
A: After that am off to bed.
B: Must say--am inclined the same way.
A: Yup.
A: Vivía aquí.
B: ¿Vivía aquí?
A: Sí.
B: ¿Quién?
A Personas únicas...
B:¿En verdad?
