Vosotros is more formal and used in Church settings etc.

Anonymous wrote:OMG how boring. Can we please stick to school talk and not boring talk about vosotros versus usted?

Yes, please!

OMG how boring. Can we please stick to school talk and not boring talk about vosotros versus usted?

Usted comes from Vuestra Merced (later Vuesarced), meaning "Your Grace". Since this was an indirect way of addressing someone, it was inflected in the third person. That is, strictly speaking, you are not addressing the person, but "Their Grace". As time went on, the person inflection was kept, even though its origins became opaque.

"Vostede" (galego) & "vusté" (català) & "você" (português) all come from the same medieval expression "vo(ue)stra/vossa merced(e)/mercê," as it was customary in the Middle ages to speak to those with titles, honors or age in the third person (your honor, your highness, your grace).


"Vos" is original to Latin (vous in French & voi in Italian) and is both singular and plural. The Castilians invented "vosotros" (like the Americans invented "you all") to distinguish between the singular and the plural meanings in the pronoun "vos," which is still commonly used in many countries in Latin America.

The original verb endings for "vos" were "ades"(ar); "edes"(er); ides(ir). In the renaissance era, the "de" was dropped in favor of the tilde (fablades = hablás / habláis) (bebedes = bebés / bebéis) (venides = venís) and the "i" was added (ar/er) to distinguish between the singular "vos" and plural "vosotros" forms. The Castilians in Spain stopped using "vos" in the 18th century while it remains in use in Latin America, where "vosotros" is never used.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless you happen to be in downtown Madrid and accept a date for Paella with the royal family, don't use vosotros. Rule of thumb. Same for vos. Okay in Argentina. Weird everywhere else.

Nope. You'd use the "ustedes" to accept that royal date. Once you have drank enough sangria with them, and are sharing stories about the kids and other friendly chatter, THEN you can use "vosotros."

+1 to the nope. My experience: when I spoke to the Spain royals, I used ustedes. When I spoke to Spanish university peers, I used vosotros. When I spoke to the one Argentinian student, I opened my eyes wide trying to figure if he was speaking Catalan or what, as he kept saying vos, vos, vos, until I got used to it. When I spoke to Catalan university peers I wanted to impress, I babbled vosaltres in Catalan.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless you happen to be in downtown Madrid and accept a date for Paella with the royal family, don't use vosotros. Rule of thumb. Same for vos. Okay in Argentina. Weird everywhere else.

Actually vos is used in Nicaragua (dominant here actually), Costa Rica, El Sal, Honduras and in parts of most of South America.

Troll! Not even hardly. Where are you from. Oh, from under a bridge. We DO NOT use vosregularly in Nicaragua.

Whatever- I have plenty of Nicaraguense friends and colleagues who do, so I'll just go with that. I don't really get the insistence that people outside of Argentina don't use vos- they do. Go ask your mama.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless you happen to be in downtown Madrid and accept a date for Paella with the royal family, don't use vosotros. Rule of thumb. Same for vos. Okay in Argentina. Weird everywhere else.

Actually vos is used in Nicaragua (dominant here actually), Costa Rica, El Sal, Honduras and in parts of most of South America.

+1. But don't tell that to the crazy lady who knows it all...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless you happen to be in downtown Madrid and accept a date for Paella with the royal family, don't use vosotros. Rule of thumb. Same for vos. Okay in Argentina. Weird everywhere else.

Actually vos is used in Nicaragua (dominant here actually), Costa Rica, El Sal, Honduras and in parts of most of South America.

Troll! Not even hardly. Where are you from. Oh, from under a bridge. We DO NOT use vosregularly in Nicaragua.

Anonymous wrote:Unless you happen to be in downtown Madrid and accept a date for Paella with the royal family, don't use vosotros. Rule of thumb. Same for vos. Okay in Argentina. Weird everywhere else.

Actually vos is used in Nicaragua (dominant here actually), Costa Rica, El Sal, Honduras and in parts of most of South America.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Back to the discussion at hand- has the situation at MV changed?

I haven't seen recent complaints, so it must have improved.

+1. Everything at our recent open house looked good. Very nice teachers and parents too; no one like the "anti-imperialists" crazy poster here

She's not the only poster questioning "things" with MV. I've been following some of the other MV threads and there appears to be this issue along with others.

As a matched family we"re going to check it out ourselfves and see what pans out.

I am one of the posters who described some of the bad Spanish grammar mistakes made by MV, so I'm all for questioning things...but I agree the anti-vosotros lady sounds quite deranged. Next she'll tell us that it was a direct descendant of Columbus who masterminded the 9/11 attacks in cahoots with the CIA and the Mossad.

It is a good idea to go to the school and check things directly.

Um no! I'm the anti-vosotros lady and I could not scare up the nonsense you just described. I'll leave that to crazies like yourself!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless you happen to be in downtown Madrid and accept a date for Paella with the royal family, don't use vosotros. Rule of thumb. Same for vos. Okay in Argentina. Weird everywhere else.

Nope. You'd use the "ustedes" to accept that royal date. Once you have drank enough sangria with them, and are sharing stories about the kids and other friendly chatter, THEN you can use "vosotros."

This! Can we just end the vosotros debate by saying its best utilized when you get down with the royals? I'm anti-vosotros, but even I can agree to that!