Is my usage of "Tú" correct in this conversation?

Question

I'm trying to fill out the below conversation for practice.

¿____ de la capital?

Sí. Yo ____ de Madrid.

Here's what I think the answers are:

¿Tú de la capital?

Sí. Yo soy de Madrid.

I think this is correct, but I'm a little doubtful about the use of "Tú" there. Is that right or should it be "Es" or something else perhaps?

Thanks for your help.

Welcome to SpanishDict. Would you take a minute to add your language to your profile? - rac1, Sep 13, 2014

Answer 1

No, tu is not correct .. tu is a subject pronoun and not a verb .. it is like some one is saying in English "You from capital" (instead of are you from the capital) ..

You need to use the verb "ser" "to be" like in English we say you A R E from the capital or A R E you from the capital (are being the conjugated form of the verb to be) similarly in spanish the verb to be is translated as either Ser or Estar and we need Ser for this context.

So the second party singular conjugated form for "ser" is "eres" (informal) or "es" formal ..

So you may say .. tu eres de la capital or eres tu de la capital ? (question)

or simply ... eres de capital ?

and use Ud form for formal setting (instead of eres) as suggested by Bosque above ..

Regards. Jimmy

Answer 2

¿____ de la capital?

Sí. Yo ____ de Madrid.

The conversation is a question followed by answer. The first has no verb so you need one there as you note. Your choice of soy in the second seems perfect.

In the first you could choose “eres” if it was an informal situation- the tú is implicit and not necessary (I don’t think it necessary in the second sentence to have yo either though- I think that is there to cue you as to who is answering)

Or you could choose “es (usted)”- with the usted only necessary if it is not clear who the question might be about-whether it could be some third person- since the person answered using yo, it would seem it was clear that it was addressed at that person and does not need that clarification. It can be considered to be even more polite to include the usted even when not necessary though.

I cannot guess from a homework standpoint which they would be looking for.