Five-minute Spanish Lessons - comparing the two languages. Lesson 39.

You / Tú, Vosotros /as, Vos, Usted, Ustedes (2)

In this lesson we are going to look at some uses of the above words in interesting colloquial expressions in Spanish and English.

"You" can be used to mean your style or your personality:

Those glasses aren't you. They're too bright.

Esas gafas no te favorecen. Son demasiado llamativas.

I'm surprised you swore at that poor woman. That's not like you to do that.

Me sorprende que soltaste una palabrota delante de esa pobre mujer. No sueles decir esas cosas.

And talking of insults, in English it's common to place "you" before a noun or adjective + noun (often) when insulting somebody but not in Spanish:

You prat! (Br.E)

You jerk! (Am.E)

¡Imbécil! (General)

¡Gilipollas! (Spain)

¡Pendejo /a! (S.Am)

You silly nincompoop!

Not as strong as the above expressions:

¡Papanatas!

Also, for endearment:

I love you! You beautiful thing you!

Note the possible repetition of "you" at the end:

Te quiero! ¡Eres la cosa más linda!

Similarly, in English we can call to others using "you". This may be possible in Spanish too:

Hey, you! Shut up and get out!

¡Oye, tú! (Spain) ¡Cállate y sal de aquí!

¡Oiga, usted! (S.Am) ¡Cállese y salga de aquí!

And for more than one person:

Excuse me, you two. But I think it's time to leave now.

Disculpan, vosotros dos. Pero creo que ya es hora de marcharse.

Ok. Let's go, you guys (Am.E)

Note that US American may refer to males and/or females as "guys" in this type of expression:

Ok. Let's go you lot (Br.E)

Vámonos, chicos.

All males or males and females:

Vámonos, chicas.

All females:

In today's spoken English "you" is used as an impersonal pronoun or when we mean "people in general". Spanish may do this too or where possible use "se" + verb:

There's so much violence in the world nowadays.

What can you do?

Hay tanta violencia en el mundo hoy en día.

¿Qué se puede hacer? / ¿Qué puedes hacer?

When you're in that situation, you just don't have time to react

Cuando te encuentras en esa situación, no tienes tiempo para reaccionar

Especially in South America, you can hear the use of "uno":

Cuando uno no tiene trabajo. ¿Qué puede hacer uno? (S.Am)

Cuando no tienes trabajo. ¿Qué se puede hacer? (Spain)

When you haven't got a job. What can you do?

As the direct object of a sentence, impersonal "you" is still used in English. In South America the structure is 3rd person "lo" + verb + "a uno" while in Spain it's more common to hear the 2nd person "te" + verb:

When somebody attacks you like that from behind. There's nothing you can do about it.

Cuando alguien lo atraca a uno por detrás de esa manera. No hay nada que hacer. (S.Am)

Cuando alguien te atraca por detrás de esa manera. No hay nada que hacer. (Spain)

And impersonal "you" as an indirect object follows the same rules but in South American Spanish we use the indirect object pronoun: "le":

They tell you the cheque (Am.E check) is on it's way but it always takes ages to arrive

Le dicen a uno que el cheque está en camino pero siempre tarda muchísimo en llegar (S.Am)

Te dicen que el talón está en camino pero siempre tarda muchísimo en llegar (Spain)

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