“Se” and “le” with “usted”, but always “te” with “tú”
Why do we say
- te digo [a ti] / le digo [a usted]
but
- no te preocupes [tú] / no se preocupe [usted]
?
Aren't these equal in terms of grammar? If so, why with "tú" in both cases it's "te", but with "usted" it's "le" and "se"? How do I know when to use "se" and when "le" with "usted"?
uso-de-palabras gramática vocabulario
edited 18 hours ago
walen
17.3k42388
asked 23 hours ago
bibatbibat
311
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bibat is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
add a comment |
Why do we say
- te digo [a ti] / le digo [a usted]
but
- no te preocupes [tú] / no se preocupe [usted]
?
Aren't these equal in terms of grammar? If so, why with "tú" in both cases it's "te", but with "usted" it's "le" and "se"? How do I know when to use "se" and when "le" with "usted"?
uso-de-palabras gramática vocabulario
edited 18 hours ago
walen
17.3k42388
asked 23 hours ago
bibatbibat
311
New contributor
bibat is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
add a comment |
Why do we say
- te digo [a ti] / le digo [a usted]
but
- no te preocupes [tú] / no se preocupe [usted]
?
Aren't these equal in terms of grammar? If so, why with "tú" in both cases it's "te", but with "usted" it's "le" and "se"? How do I know when to use "se" and when "le" with "usted"?
uso-de-palabras gramática vocabulario
edited 18 hours ago
walen
17.3k42388
asked 23 hours ago
bibatbibat
311
New contributor
bibat is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
Why do we say
- te digo [a ti] / le digo [a usted]
but
- no te preocupes [tú] / no se preocupe [usted]
?
Aren't these equal in terms of grammar? If so, why with "tú" in both cases it's "te", but with "usted" it's "le" and "se"? How do I know when to use "se" and when "le" with "usted"?
uso-de-palabras gramática vocabulario
uso-de-palabras gramática vocabulario
edited 18 hours ago
walen
17.3k42388
asked 23 hours ago
bibatbibat
311
New contributor
bibat is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
edited 18 hours ago
walen
17.3k42388
asked 23 hours ago
bibatbibat
311
New contributor
bibat is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
edited 18 hours ago
walen
17.3k42388
edited 18 hours ago
walen
17.3k42388
edited 18 hours ago
walen
17.3k42388
17.3k42388
asked 23 hours ago
bibatbibat
311
New contributor
bibat is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
asked 23 hours ago
bibatbibat
311
asked 23 hours ago
bibatbibat
311
311
New contributor
bibat is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
New contributor
bibat is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
bibat is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
add a comment |
add a comment |
1 Answer
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First, let's make a brief clarification: usted, in Spanish, is always gramatically treated as a third person (the same as él, ella, ellos, ellas).
Now, to your question. Indeed, te, se, and le are all personal pronouns. They're a special type of personal pronoun that we call pronómbres personales átonos. They can basically play two roles: as the verb complement (direct or indirect), or as the reflexive particle that you put before or after a verb.
Let's look at this useful table of pronómbres personales átonos:
As you may note, for the first, and second person pronouns (yo, tú, nosotros, ustedes), there are only distinctions between singular and plural cases. However, in the third person pronouns (usted, él, ella, ellos, ellas), there are distinctions regarding number (sing. or plur.), gender (m. or f.), and syntactic function (direct obj., indir. obj., or reflexive).
In the first set of sentences that you put as an example, le and te are being used as the indirect object:
A ti: 2nd person singular =te
A usted: 3rd person singular as indirect object =le
In the second pair of examples, le and se are being used as reflexive particles of the verb preocuparse.
Tú: 2nd person singular =te
Usted: 3rd person as reflexive =se
edited 3 hours ago
jlliagre
1,02569
answered 19 hours ago
prm296prm296
1,207116
Do you want to add a note to say why os has an *? I assume it would say something like 'primarily in Spain' but I am not sure.
– mdewey
9 hours ago
@mdewey Yes, you're right. I took the table from the DPD, and the asterisk in os refers to the following explanation: "En América, en Canarias y en parte de Andalucía, no se usa el pronombre personal vosotros para la segunda persona del plural. En su lugar se emplea ustedes".
– prm296
9 hours ago
add a comment |
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1 Answer
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1 Answer
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active
oldest
votes
First, let's make a brief clarification: usted, in Spanish, is always gramatically treated as a third person (the same as él, ella, ellos, ellas).
Now, to your question. Indeed, te, se, and le are all personal pronouns. They're a special type of personal pronoun that we call pronómbres personales átonos. They can basically play two roles: as the verb complement (direct or indirect), or as the reflexive particle that you put before or after a verb.
Let's look at this useful table of pronómbres personales átonos:
As you may note, for the first, and second person pronouns (yo, tú, nosotros, ustedes), there are only distinctions between singular and plural cases. However, in the third person pronouns (usted, él, ella, ellos, ellas), there are distinctions regarding number (sing. or plur.), gender (m. or f.), and syntactic function (direct obj., indir. obj., or reflexive).
In the first set of sentences that you put as an example, le and te are being used as the indirect object:
A ti: 2nd person singular =te
A usted: 3rd person singular as indirect object =le
In the second pair of examples, le and se are being used as reflexive particles of the verb preocuparse.
Tú: 2nd person singular =te
Usted: 3rd person as reflexive =se
edited 3 hours ago
jlliagre
1,02569
answered 19 hours ago
prm296prm296
1,207116
Do you want to add a note to say why os has an *? I assume it would say something like 'primarily in Spain' but I am not sure.
– mdewey
9 hours ago
@mdewey Yes, you're right. I took the table from the DPD, and the asterisk in os refers to the following explanation: "En América, en Canarias y en parte de Andalucía, no se usa el pronombre personal vosotros para la segunda persona del plural. En su lugar se emplea ustedes".
– prm296
9 hours ago
add a comment |
First, let's make a brief clarification: usted, in Spanish, is always gramatically treated as a third person (the same as él, ella, ellos, ellas).
Now, to your question. Indeed, te, se, and le are all personal pronouns. They're a special type of personal pronoun that we call pronómbres personales átonos. They can basically play two roles: as the verb complement (direct or indirect), or as the reflexive particle that you put before or after a verb.
Let's look at this useful table of pronómbres personales átonos:
As you may note, for the first, and second person pronouns (yo, tú, nosotros, ustedes), there are only distinctions between singular and plural cases. However, in the third person pronouns (usted, él, ella, ellos, ellas), there are distinctions regarding number (sing. or plur.), gender (m. or f.), and syntactic function (direct obj., indir. obj., or reflexive).
In the first set of sentences that you put as an example, le and te are being used as the indirect object:
A ti: 2nd person singular =te
A usted: 3rd person singular as indirect object =le
In the second pair of examples, le and se are being used as reflexive particles of the verb preocuparse.
Tú: 2nd person singular =te
Usted: 3rd person as reflexive =se
edited 3 hours ago
jlliagre
1,02569
answered 19 hours ago
prm296prm296
1,207116
Do you want to add a note to say why os has an *? I assume it would say something like 'primarily in Spain' but I am not sure.
– mdewey
9 hours ago
@mdewey Yes, you're right. I took the table from the DPD, and the asterisk in os refers to the following explanation: "En América, en Canarias y en parte de Andalucía, no se usa el pronombre personal vosotros para la segunda persona del plural. En su lugar se emplea ustedes".
– prm296
9 hours ago
add a comment |
First, let's make a brief clarification: usted, in Spanish, is always gramatically treated as a third person (the same as él, ella, ellos, ellas).
Now, to your question. Indeed, te, se, and le are all personal pronouns. They're a special type of personal pronoun that we call pronómbres personales átonos. They can basically play two roles: as the verb complement (direct or indirect), or as the reflexive particle that you put before or after a verb.
Let's look at this useful table of pronómbres personales átonos:
As you may note, for the first, and second person pronouns (yo, tú, nosotros, ustedes), there are only distinctions between singular and plural cases. However, in the third person pronouns (usted, él, ella, ellos, ellas), there are distinctions regarding number (sing. or plur.), gender (m. or f.), and syntactic function (direct obj., indir. obj., or reflexive).
In the first set of sentences that you put as an example, le and te are being used as the indirect object:
A ti: 2nd person singular =te
A usted: 3rd person singular as indirect object =le
In the second pair of examples, le and se are being used as reflexive particles of the verb preocuparse.
Tú: 2nd person singular =te
Usted: 3rd person as reflexive =se
edited 3 hours ago
jlliagre
1,02569
answered 19 hours ago
prm296prm296
1,207116
First, let's make a brief clarification: usted, in Spanish, is always gramatically treated as a third person (the same as él, ella, ellos, ellas).
Now, to your question. Indeed, te, se, and le are all personal pronouns. They're a special type of personal pronoun that we call pronómbres personales átonos. They can basically play two roles: as the verb complement (direct or indirect), or as the reflexive particle that you put before or after a verb.
Let's look at this useful table of pronómbres personales átonos:
As you may note, for the first, and second person pronouns (yo, tú, nosotros, ustedes), there are only distinctions between singular and plural cases. However, in the third person pronouns (usted, él, ella, ellos, ellas), there are distinctions regarding number (sing. or plur.), gender (m. or f.), and syntactic function (direct obj., indir. obj., or reflexive).
In the first set of sentences that you put as an example, le and te are being used as the indirect object:
A ti: 2nd person singular =te
A usted: 3rd person singular as indirect object =le
In the second pair of examples, le and se are being used as reflexive particles of the verb preocuparse.
Tú: 2nd person singular =te
Usted: 3rd person as reflexive =se
edited 3 hours ago
jlliagre
1,02569
answered 19 hours ago
prm296prm296
1,207116
edited 3 hours ago
jlliagre
1,02569
edited 3 hours ago
jlliagre
1,02569
edited 3 hours ago
jlliagre
1,02569
1,02569
answered 19 hours ago
prm296prm296
1,207116
answered 19 hours ago
prm296prm296
1,207116
answered 19 hours ago
prm296prm296
1,207116
1,207116
Do you want to add a note to say why os has an *? I assume it would say something like 'primarily in Spain' but I am not sure.
– mdewey
9 hours ago
@mdewey Yes, you're right. I took the table from the DPD, and the asterisk in os refers to the following explanation: "En América, en Canarias y en parte de Andalucía, no se usa el pronombre personal vosotros para la segunda persona del plural. En su lugar se emplea ustedes".
– prm296
9 hours ago
add a comment |
Do you want to add a note to say why os has an *? I assume it would say something like 'primarily in Spain' but I am not sure.
– mdewey
9 hours ago
@mdewey Yes, you're right. I took the table from the DPD, and the asterisk in os refers to the following explanation: "En América, en Canarias y en parte de Andalucía, no se usa el pronombre personal vosotros para la segunda persona del plural. En su lugar se emplea ustedes".
– prm296
9 hours ago
Do you want to add a note to say why os has an *? I assume it would say something like 'primarily in Spain' but I am not sure.
– mdewey
9 hours ago
Do you want to add a note to say why os has an *? I assume it would say something like 'primarily in Spain' but I am not sure.
– mdewey
9 hours ago
@mdewey Yes, you're right. I took the table from the DPD, and the asterisk in os refers to the following explanation: "En América, en Canarias y en parte de Andalucía, no se usa el pronombre personal vosotros para la segunda persona del plural. En su lugar se emplea ustedes".
– prm296
9 hours ago
@mdewey Yes, you're right. I took the table from the DPD, and the asterisk in os refers to the following explanation: "En América, en Canarias y en parte de Andalucía, no se usa el pronombre personal vosotros para la segunda persona del plural. En su lugar se emplea ustedes".
– prm296
9 hours ago
add a comment |
bibat is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
bibat is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
bibat is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
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