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In Spanish grammar, voseo () is the use of vos as a second-person singular pronoun, along with its associated verbal forms, in certain regions where the language is spoken. In those regions it replaces tuteo, i.e. the use of the pronoun tú and its verbal forms. Voseo can also be found in the context of using verb conjugations for vos with tú as the subject pronoun (verbal voseo).Stewart Miranda (1999). 041514258X, Routledge. 041514258X
In all regions with voseo, the corresponding unstressed object pronoun is te and the corresponding possessive is tu/tuyo.
Vos is used extensively as the second-person singular in Rioplatense Spanish (Argentina and Uruguay), Chilean Spanish, Media Luna, Paraguayan Spanish, and much of Central America (El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica); in Mexico, in the southern regions of Chiapas and parts of Oaxaca. It is rarely used, if at all, in places such as Cuba and Puerto Rico.
Vos had been traditionally used in Argentina, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Paraguay, the Philippines and Uruguay, even in formal writing. In the dialect of Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay (known as 'Rioplatense'), the usage of vos is prevalent, even in mainstream film, media and music. In Argentina, particularly from the second half of the 20th century, it has become very common to see billboards and other advertising campaigns using voseo.
Vos is present in some regions of other countries, for instance in the Maracucho Spanish of Zulia State, Venezuela (see Venezuelan Spanish), the Azuero Peninsula of Panama, in a few departments in Colombia,Díaz Collazos, Ana María. Desarrollo sociolingüístico del voseo en la región andina de Colombia (1555–1976). and in parts of Ecuador (Sierra down to Esmeraldas). In Peru, voseo is present in certain Andean regions and Cajamarca, but the younger generations have ceased to use it. It is also present in Judaeo-Spanish, spoken by , where it is the archaic plural form that vosotros replaced.
Voseo is seldom taught to students of Spanish as a second language, and its precise usage varies across different regions. Nevertheless, in recent years, it has become more commonly accepted across the Hispanophone world as a valid part of regional dialects.
Already by the late 18th century, however, vos itself was restricted to politeness among one's familiar friends. The following extract from a textbook is illustrative of usage at the time:
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 the corresponding third-person verb forms. Other formal forms of address included vuestra excelencia ("your excellence", contracted phonetically to ussencia) and vuestra señoría ("your lordship/ladyship", contracted to ussía). 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 the Spanish language 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 a number of areas in Spanish-speaking America: Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia (east), Uruguay, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and some smaller areas; it is not found, or found only in internally remote areas (such as Chiapas) in the countries historically best connected with Spain: Mexico, Panama, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru and Equatorial Guinea. 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").
In the first half of the 19th century, the use of vos was as prevalent in Chile as it was in Argentina. The current limitation of the use of vos in Chile is attributed to a campaign to eradicate it by the Chilean education system. The campaign was initiated by Andrés Bello who considered the use of vos a manifestation of lack of education.Luizete Guimarães Barros. 1990. Lengua y nación en la Gramática de Bello. Anuario brasileño de estudios hispánicos.
The preposition-pronoun combination con vos ("with you") is used for the tuteo form contigo.
The direct and indirect object form te is used in both voseo and tuteo.
| Nominative | Oblique case | Reflexive | |||||
| subject | direct object | indirect object | prepositional object | fused with con | direct/indirect object | prepositional object | fused with con |
| vos | te | te | vos | con vos | te | vos | con vos |
| usted | lo/la | le | usted | con usted | se | sí | consigo |
| tú | te | te | ti | contigo | te | ti | contigo |
| vosotros | os | os | vosotros | con vosotros | os | vosotros | con vosotros |
The possessive pronouns of vos also coincide with tú
General conjugation is the one that is most widely accepted and used in various countries such as Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, parts of Bolivia, Ecuador, and Colombia, as well as Central American countries.
Some Uruguayan speakers combine the pronoun tú with the vos conjugation (for example, tú sabés). Conversely, speakers in some other places where both tú and vos are used combine vos with the tú conjugation (for example, vos sabes). This is a frequent occurrence in the Argentine province of Santiago del Estero.
The verb forms employed with vos are also different in Chilean Spanish: Chileans use -ái and soi 'you are' instead of -áis or -ás and sois or sos. Chileans never pronounce these conjugations with a final -s. The forms erís for 'you are', and habís and hai for 'you have' are also found in Chilean Spanish.
In the case of the ending -ís (such as in comís, podís, vivís, erís, venís), the final -s is pronounced like any other final in Chilean Spanish. It is most often pronounced as an aspiration similar to the 'h' sound in English. It can also be pronounced as a fricative , or be dropped completely. Its variable pronunciation is a phonological rather than a morphological phenomenon.
Venezuelan Maracucho Spanish is notable in that they preserve the diphthongized plural verb forms in all tenses, as still used with vosotros in Spain. Chilean Spanish also notably uses the diphthong -ái.
In Judaeo-Spanish, the -áis, -éis, -ís, & -ois endings are pronounced , , , & .
In Chile, it is much more usual to use tú + vos verb conjugation ( tú sabís ). The use of pronominal vos (vos sabís) is reserved for very informal situations and may even be considered vulgar in some cases.
Unlike tú, which has many irregular forms, the only voseo verbs that are conjugated irregularly in the indicative present are ser, ir and haber. However, haber is seldom used in the indicative present, since there is a strong tendency to use preterite instead of present perfect.
Again, the conjugation of tú has far more irregularities, whereas vos has only one irregular verb in the affirmative imperative.
In Chile, the general vos conjugation is not used in the affirmative imperative.
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In Central America:
The proposed theory requires the use of only one special rule in the case of Chilean voseo. This rule plus other rules that are independently justified in the language make it possible to synchronically derive all the Chilean and River Plate voseo verb forms in a straightforward manner. The article additionally solves the problem posed by the alternate verbal forms of Chilean voseo like the future indicative (e.g. bailaríh or bailarái 'you will dance'), the present indicative forms of haber ( habíh and hai 'you have'), and the present indicative of ser ( soi, eríh and eréi 'you are'), without resorting to any ad hoc rules. All these different verb forms would come from different underlying representations. The future forms bailarái and bailaríh come from underlying and , the latter related to the historical future form -és, which was documented in Chile in the 17th century. Habíh and hai come from and , while soi and eríh come from and . The form erei also comes from , with additional semi-vocalization. The theoretical framework of the article is that of classic generative phonology.
Voseo was long considered a backward or uneducated usage by prescriptivist grammarians. Many Central American intellectuals, themselves from voseante nations, have condemned the usage of vos in the past. With the changing mentalities in the Hispanic world, and with the development of descriptive as opposed to prescriptive linguistics, it has become simply a local variant of Spanish. In some places it has become symbolically important and is pointed to with pride as a local defining characteristic.
Voseo in Chavacano
Chavacano, a Spanish-based creole spoken in the Philippines, employs voseo, while the standard Spanish spoken in the country does not. (2025). 9788400086350, Spanish National Research Council. ISBN 9788400086350 The Chavacano language below in comparison of other Chavacano dialects and level of formality with Voseo in both subject and possessive pronouns. Note the mixed and co-existing usages of vos, tú, usted, and vosotros.
2nd person singular vos/vo/evo/evos (common/informal)
tú (familiar)
usted (formal)vo/bo (common)
tu (familiar)
usté (formal)vo/bo (common/informal)
usté (formal)usted (formal)
vos (informal) 2nd person plural kamó (common)
vosotros (familiar)
ustedes (formal)vusos
busosbuhotro
bujotro
ustedi
tediustedes
vosotros 2nd person singular de vos ( common)
de tu ( familiar)
tuyo ( familiar)
de tuyo/di tuyo ( familiar)
de usted ( formal)de tu 2nd person plural de iño/di inyo ( common)
de vosotros ( familiar)
de ustedes ( formal)(de) vos
Conjugation with vos
All modern voseo conjugations derive from Old Spanish second person plural -ades, -edes, -ides, and -odes (as in sodes, 'you are'). Lapesa Melgar, Rafael. 1970. " Las formas verbales de segunda persona y los orígenes del voseo", in: Carlos H. Magis (ed.), Actas del III Congreso de la Asociación Internacional de Hispanistas (México, D.F., 26–31 Aug 1968). México: Colegio de México, 519–531. The 14th and 15th centuries saw an evolution of these conjugations, with -ades originally giving -áis, -edes giving -és (or -ís), García de Diego, Vicente. 1951 1981. Gramática histórica española. (3rd edition; 1st edition 1951, 2nd edition 1961, 3rd edition 1970, 1st reprint 1981.) Madrid: Gredos, 227–229. -ides giving -ís,-ides did not produce -íes because -iés and íes were already in use as Imperfect forms, cf. García de Diego (1951 1981: 228) and Lapesa (1970: 526). and -odes giving -óis. Soon analogous forms -ás and -éis appeared. Hence the variety of forms the contemporary American voseo adopts, some varieties featuring a generalized monophthong (most of them), some a generalized diphthong (e.g. Venezuela), and some combining monophthongs and diphthongs, depending on the conjugation (e.g. Chile). In the most general, monophthongized, conjugation paradigm, a difference between voseo forms and respective tuteo forms is visible exclusively in the present indicative, imperative and subjunctive, and, most of the time, in the preterite. Below is a comparison table of the conjugation of several verbs for tú and for vos, and next to them the one for vosotros, the informal second person plural currently used orally only in Spain; in oratory or legal language (highly formal forms of Spanish) it is used outside of Spain. Verb forms that agree with vos are stressed on the last syllable, causing the loss of the stem diphthong in those verbs, such as poder and venir, which are stem-changing.
1 Because of the general Debuccalization of syllable-final s, the -s of this ending is usually heard as h or not pronounced.
2 In Colombia, the rest of the country that uses vos follows the General Conjugation.
3 In the state of Zulia
4 in Azuero Peninsula
Present indicative
+ VOSEO
! rowspan="2" style="text-align:center;" Infinitive
! colspan="3" style="text-align:center;" Present Indicative 1 in Zulia; identical ending to modern vosotros
Affirmative imperative
Vos also differs in its affirmative imperative mood conjugation from both tú and vosotros. Specifically, the vos imperative is formed by dropping the final -r from the infinitive, but keeping the stress on the last syllable. The only verb that is irregular in this regard is ir; its vos imperative is not usually used, with andá (the vos imperative of andar, which is denoted by *) being generally used instead; except for the Argentine province of Tucumán, where the imperative ite is used. For most regular verbs ending in -ir, the vos imperatives use the same conjugations as the yo form in the preterite; almost all verbs that are irregular in the preterite (which are denoted by ‡) retain the regular vos imperative forms.
Subjunctive
In most places where voseo is used, it is applied also in the subjunctive. In the Río de la Plata region, both the tú-conjugation and the voseo conjugation are found, the tú-form being more common. In this variety, some studies have shown a pragmatic difference between the tú-form and the vos-form, such that the vos form carries information about the speaker's belief state, and can be stigmatized. For example, in Central America the subjunctive and negative command form is no mintás, and in Chile it is no mintái; however, in Río de la Plata both no mientas and no mintás are found. Real Academia Española models its voseo conjugation tables on the most frequent, unstigmatized Río de la Plata usage and therefore omits the subjunctive voseo.See for example in Real Academia Española Dictionary, mentir or preocupar, where mentís and preocupás are present, but mintás and preocupés are missing.
No quiero que mintái. I don't want you to lie. No temái. Do not fear. Que durmái bien. Sleep well. Don't worry. 1including areas in Colombia with voseo, e.g. the Paisa region.
Verbal voseo and pronominal voseo
Geographical distribution
[[File:Voseo-extension-real.PNG|thumb|left|200px|Distribution of voseo:
Countries where voseo is predominant
In South America:
(2025). 9789027267009, John Benjamins Publishing Company. ISBN 9789027267009 Vos is now primarily used orally with friends and family in Cartago, Guanacaste province, the San José metropolitan area and near the Nicaraguan border and in advertising signage. Usted is the primary form in other areas and with strangers. Tuteo is rarely used, but when it is used in speech by a Costa Rican, it is commonly considered fake and effeminate.
Countries where voseo is extensive, but not predominant
In South America:
Countries where voseo occurs in some areas
In the following countries, voseo is used only in certain areas:
Countries where voseo is virtually absent
In the following countries, voseo has disappeared completely among the native population:
Synchronic analysis of Chilean and River Plate verbal voseo
The traditional assumption that the Chilean and River Plate voseo verb forms are derived from those corresponding to vosotros has been challenged as synchronically inadequate in a 2014 article, on the grounds that it requires at least six different rules, including three monophthongization processes that lacks phonological motivation. Alternatively, the article argues that the Chilean and River Plate voseo verb forms are synchronically derived from underlying representations that coincide with those corresponding to the non-honorific second person singular tú. In both Chilean and Rioplatense Spanish, the voseo form assigns stress to the syllable following the verb's root, or its infinitive in the case of the future and conditional conjugations. This alone derives all the Rioplatense voseo verb conjugations, in all tenses. Chilean verb forms also undergo rules of semi-vocalization, vowel raising, and aspiration. In semi-vocalization, becomes the semivowel when after ; thus, -ás becomes -ái, and sos becomes soi 'you are'. The vowel raising rule turns stressed into , so bebés becomes bebís. Aspiration, the norm in both Chilean and Rioplatense Spanish, means that syllable or word-final becomes pronounced like an .
Attitudes
In some countries, the pronoun vos is used with family and friends (T-V distinction), like tú in other varieties of Spanish, and contrasts with the respectful usted (V-form used with third person) which is used with strangers, elderly, and people of higher socioeconomic status; appropriate usage varies by dialect. In Central America, vos can be used among those considered equals, while usted maintains its respectful usage. In Judaeo-Spanish, the pronoun usted is completely absent, so the use of vos with strangers and elders is the standard.
See also
Sources
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