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Five Minute Study - SPANISH and ENGLISH compared Guía de la gramática inglesa...
En estas lecciones breves se comparan el inglés hablado y coloquial con el español con el fin de ayudar al estudiante a apreciar tanto las diferencias como las similitudes lingüísticas entre los dos idiomas.
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)
For more help on the correct use of "le", "la", "lo", "se", "ti", "usted" etc. when "you" is a direct or indirect object, download the free version of an ASSISTANT ebook... (See below)
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