| Wanna speak real Spanish from your first lesson? Sign up for your free lifetime account at SpanishPod101.com. |
| Hello, there, my beautiful friends from SpanishPod101.com. My name is Diego. |
| And I’m Efraín. Pero, usted no me dijo de qué íbamos a hablar en el video. |
| Bueno, la verdad es que no sé. Tú me dijiste que tenías todo el tiempo disponible para grabar. |
| ¿¡Yo!? Pero si vos sos un pelotudo. |
| ¿Y por qué cambiaste el acento? |
| Because there are many ways to say “you” in Spanish. |
| Exactly! And, in this video, we’re going to check when to use tú and when to use usted in Spanish. So, please enjoy the video. |
| Okay, guys, so, why is it important to know when to use tú or usted? Efraín, do you know which country has the most Spanish speakers in the world? |
| Of course! It is… |
| Yeah, Mexico. |
| Yeah! |
| And you know what’s the second one? |
| Eh… Pues claro que son los españoles. |
| No, no, in fact, it’s the States. The States is the country number two that has the most Spanish speakers in the world. So, if you’re learning Spanish, you have definitely come across people who speak Spanish and they use two forms of “you” in Spanish. So, they use either “tú” or “usted.” In the case of “tú,” they use it in an informal way, okay? It’s for informal settings, whereas they use “usted” for formal settings. So, let’s break down in which occasions you should use “tú” and in which occasions you should use “usted.” |
| Okay, so you use “usted” for formal settings when you want to address older people, for example. Or, when you want to address someone of superior hierarchy, like your boss or like your supervisor. Or, when you want to address your acquaintances. |
| So, if you go and buy, maybe some elote and you kind of know the guy, it’s your acquaintance, so it’s like “¿Me puede dar un elote?” |
| ¿Me puede dar un elote? |
| Okay, well, you use tú when you have a different level of respect. Like a friend or like even family. It’s not really common nowadays that sons and daughters call their parents as usted, they use tú. |
| And what happens when you don’t know the person, when it is an unknown person? So, it depends on the age of the person, actually. If he’s your age or under, you will address it as tú, or if is older you will address him or address her as “usted.” |
| ¿Quién es usted? |
| ¿Tú ya no me conoces? ¿Sufres amnesia? |
| ¿Quién es usted? |
| When you don’t know how to address the person you’re speaking with, this is where the verb “tutear” comes into play. So, we have the verb tutear, or even we also call it “hablar de tú,” tutear or hablar de tú. And we use it when you’re kind of unsure whether to address someone as tú or usted or when you want the other person to give you permission to speak to him with “tú” instead of usted. |
| Let’s see an example of this verb. |
| Qué tal, buenas tardes. |
| Muy buenas tardes, ¿por favor me podría dar el menú? |
| Sí, adelante, para iniciar, ¿gustaría usted algún aperitivo? |
| Oh, no, no, por favor, no me hable de usted, me siento viejo, por favor, tutéame. |
| Ok, le hablaré de tú. |
| Sí, por favor, muchas gracias. |
| ¿Quieres algún aperitivo o alguna bebida? |
| Claro que sí, ¿puedes darme una Coca-Cola, por favor? |
| So, in this example, I didn’t want to be addressed as usted because I didn’t want to look older, so that’s why I asked Efraín if he could talk to me of “tú” instead of “usted.” So, once again, this verb is tutear or just, you say, hablar de tú. So I can say “Efraín, por favor, tutéame” or “Háblame de tú.” Yeah? Or “Puedes tutearme” or “Puedes hablarme de tú.” Both work. |
| Very good, but now, just in this video, let’s just focus on tú and usted. Now, lets speak about the grammar difference between tú and usted. When you’re going to use tú, of course, the verb needs to be conjugated differently than when you use usted. For example, in the present, the rule of thumb is, whenever you use tú, the verb ends in an -s. Okay? And in the usted form, it is conjugated as for “él” as the subject “él” or the subject “ella.” Therefore, él, ella, and usted are conjugated in a similar way. So, let’s see some examples so you can notice the difference between tú and usted. |
| Formal |
| ¿Cómo está usted? |
| Informal |
| ¿Cómo estás tú, Efraín? |
| Formal |
| Usted es una persona muy agradable. |
| Informal |
| Eres una persona muy agradable. |
| Formal |
| ¿Gusta algo de beber? |
| Informal |
| Efraín, ¿gustas algo de beber en mi casa? |
| Formal |
| ¿Usted fue al concierto de música clásica anoche? |
| Informal |
| ¿Oye, fuiste al concierto de música clásica anoche? |
| Formal |
| ¿Usted va a ir al cine hoy? |
| Informal |
| ¿Oye, vas a ir al cine hoy? |
| That’s it for today my family of SpanishPod101.com, we’re really glad to have you here. Please, write your comments down below, we do read them, and share this video with other learners that need to know the difference between tú and usted. Okay, so subscribe to this channel and see you in our next video. |
| ¡Hasta luego! |
| See you guys! |
Comments
Hide