Use Sophia to knock out your gen-ed requirements quickly and affordably. Learn more
×

Pronouns

Author: Sophia

what's covered
In this lesson, you will learn about the purpose of pronouns in the Spanish language, and how they function grammatically. Specifically, this lesson will cover:
  1. Los Pronombres (Pronouns)

1. Los Pronombres (Pronouns)

Video Transcript

Pronouns, such as "he" and "she," take the place of nouns. They eliminate redundancy.

EXAMPLE

"Mary is my friend. Mary is nice. Mary is tall" sounds longwinded. Instead, we would say, "Mary is my friend. She is nice and tall." In Spanish: "María es mi amiga. Ella es simpática y alta."

You will only need to learn certain pronouns in order to speak Spanish for your profession. They are all singular.

English Spanish Pronunciation
I yo yo
you usted oo-staid
he él ale
she ella ay-yah

Yo is first person. When speaking of yourself, you use first person. When speaking about others, you use third person. Therefore, usted, ella, and él are all third person.

hint
Note the accent on "él." If you leave it off, it changes the meaning of the word from "he" to "the."

One more note about pronouns in Spanish is that you do not always have to use them. You should use them if your subject is unclear; however, once the subject is clear, you may omit the pronoun. This is very different from English.

EXAMPLE

In English, you must say, "He speaks French. He is from France. He is tall." You cannot leave off the subject pronouns. In Spanish, you can say, "Él habla francés. Es de Francia. Es alto." We only used the word "él" once, but we still made three complete sentences. Likewise, "Yo hablo español" and "Hablo español" both mean "I speak Spanish," even though the word "I" only appears in the first sentence.

Still, pronouns are very important in Spanish. Without them, we would not know how to choose the correct form of the verb to create agreement.

summary
In this lesson, you learned about pronouns in the Spanish language. The pronouns that you will need to know to speak Spanish in your profession are "yo" (I), "usted" (you), "él" (he), and "ella" (she). An important difference between pronouns in English and Spanish is that, in Spanish, you may omit the pronoun once the subject you are speaking about becomes clear.

¡Buena suerte!

Support

If you are struggling with a concept or terminology in the course, you may contact PharmacySpanishSupport@capella.edu for assistance.

If you are having technical issues, please contact learningcoach@sophia.org.

Source: This content has been adapted from "Pharmacy Spanish" by Stephanie Langston.