Sois el Rey...Now I'm confused?

Question

Hi guys,

I've just watched a film about King David and quite often when talking to the king people use the personal pronoun os, and sois using the vosotros form. Has anybody else seen this happen because I thought vosotros was plural only?

Thanks, Mark.

Answer 1

Hola, Mark. Esta forma es muy rara, pero está usada a veces. Aquí es un extracto de Wikipedia, espero que esto ayude.

Originally a second-person plural, Vos came to be used as a more polite second-person singular pronoun to be used among one's familiar friends. The following extract from a late 18th-century textbook is illustrative of usage at the time:

We seldom make use in Spanish of the second Person Singular or Plural, but when through a great familiarity among friends, or speaking to God, or a wife and husband to themselves, or a father and mother to their children, or to servants.

Examples. O Dios, sois vos mi Padre verdadéro, O God, thou art my true Father; Tu eres un buen amígo, Thou art a good friend. —Raymundo del Pueyo, A New Spanish Grammar, or the Elements of the Spanish Language[2]

The standard formal way to address a person one was not on familiar terms with was to address such a person as vuestra merced ("your grace" originally abbreviated as v.m.) in the singular and vuestras mercedes in the plural. Because of the literal meaning of these forms, they were accompanied by a third-person verb form. Other formal forms of address included vuestra excelencia ("your excellence" abbreviated as ussencia) and vuestra señoria ("your lordship/ladyship" abbreviated as ussia). Today, both vos and tú are considered to be informal pronouns, with vos being somewhat synonymous with tú in regions where both are used. This was the situation when Castilian was brought to the Río de la Plata area (around Buenos Aires and Montevideo) and to Chile.

In time, vos lost currency in Spain but survived in Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia (east), Uruguay, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and many other countries and regions in Latin America, while Vuestra merced evolved into usted (vuestra merced > usarced > usted; in fact, "usted" is still abbreviated as either Vd or Ud). Note that the term vosotros is a combined form of vos otros (meaning literally "ye/you others"), while the term nosotros comes from nos otros ("we/us others"); otros was added to avoid confusion.[citation needed]

In the first half of the 19th century Chile the use of vos was equally strong in Chile as in Argentina.[3] The current limitation of the use of vos in Chile is attributed to a campaign to eradicate it by the Chilean education system.[3] The campaign was initiated by Andrés Bello who considered the use of vos a manifestation of lack of education.[

The passive form uses the verb ser not estar. I wuld say A veces se usa esta forma/usan esta forma, pero es rara - FELIZ77, Mar 30, 2014

I disagree with you that the second person singular is rarely used in Spain the tú form is gaining popularity and is much more common in Spain today than it used to be and used more frequently than in South America where Usted is the preferred form unti - FELIZ77, Mar 30, 2014

you are invited or encouraged to use it when you are considered a close friend. It is of curse used to address children, pets,and close family and friends. . - FELIZ77, Mar 30, 2014

word correction: 'would' say (sorry) - FELIZ77, Mar 30, 2014

Answer 2

This is called voseo which is different from the vostros (plural) form used in spanish . Voseo is the second person singular. If you were to use el tuteo, it would be tú eres & Ud. would be Ud. es. I live in Guatemala and we use it when talking to people very familiar. Vos tenés que practicar. The good thing about the voseo is that there are no irregularities when conjugating (no stem changes.)

Here is an example of how people talk in central america ¿Vos sos de El Salvador, va?

Some countries use soi or sois like in your example. Remember not all countries use el voseo.

Look for el voseo on the internet, there should be an explanation and a map of where they use it in conversation and writing.

Bueno, ahora estoy en casa. Te ajunto un enlace.

Click Here

Answer 3

Ahhh ok thanks a lot guys, I tried to find something about this online before I posted but I couldn't and I've never read about it any of my Spanish grammar books.