Spanish of Spain
Vosotros vs ustedes: who says what, and where
Both mean “you” in the plural. One of them is used every day in Spain and almost nowhere else — with its own verb endings, its own possessive and its own commands.
17 August 2026 · 6 min
The short answer. In Spain, people talk to a group of friends with vosotros and to a group of strangers with ustedes. In Latin America vosotros does not exist: ustedes covers both, friends included.
So vosotros habláis and ustedes hablan are not right and wrong. They are two places.
What each one actually does
Spanish has two ways of saying “you” to more than one person, and the difference is how close you are to them.
¿Vosotros venís esta noche?
Are you coming tonight? — to your friends, your brothers, your classmates.
¿Ustedes vienen esta noche?
Are you coming tonight? — to clients, to people you have just met, to your partner's parents.
In Spain both live side by side and you pick depending on the room. Cross the Atlantic and the choice disappears: from Mexico to Argentina, everyone says ustedes, to their grandmother and to their best friend alike. Vosotros survives there only in old texts, in the Bible and in speeches.
The verb changes too, and that is the hard part
Vosotros is not just another word to memorise: it brings its own verb ending. That is the part that takes practice, and the one you will hear on your first day in Madrid.
| Verb | vosotros (Spain) | ustedes (everywhere) |
|---|---|---|
| hablar | habláis | hablan |
| comer | coméis | comen |
| vivir | vivís | viven |
| ser | sois | son |
| tener | tenéis | tienen |
| ir | vais | van |
The good news: the vosotros ending is regular even when the verb is not. For -ar verbs it is -áis, for -er verbs -éis, for -ir verbs -ís. Ser and ir are the two that go their own way: sois, vais.
And everything attached to it
Choosing vosotros also changes the small words around the verb. This is where people who learned only ustedes get caught.
| vosotros | ustedes | |
|---|---|---|
| Object | os veo mañana | les veo mañana |
| Possessive | vuestro coche | su coche |
| After a preposition | con vosotros | con ustedes |
| Command | hablad, venid | hablen, vengan |
| Reflexive command | sentaos | siéntense |
Spain is not all vosotros either
Two things are worth knowing before someone corrects you.
- Even in Madrid, ustedes is alive and well. You will hear it in a bank, in a courtroom, at the doctor's, and any time someone wants to keep a polite distance.
- In the Canary Islands and in much of western Andalusia — Cádiz, Huelva, Seville — people use ustedes with friends too, exactly like in Latin America. It is not a mistake and it is not “bad Spanish”: it is how those regions speak.
So which one should you learn?
Learn to understand both from day one; that costs you nothing and you will need it. For speaking, follow where you are going:
- If you are moving to Spain, or already live here: use vosotros with friends and colleagues. Not using it does not make you wrong, but it makes you sound like you are keeping everyone at arm's length.
- If you are heading to Latin America: stay with ustedes for everything. You will still recognise vosotros when a Spaniard says it, or when you read anything written before 1900.
Whichever one you end up speaking, it is worth knowing that the other exists before someone uses it on you. That is the whole point of this article.
Where this comes from
Ruta eÑe is a Spanish course, A1 to A2, written in the Spanish spoken in Spain: the texts use vosotros, and when a word changes in Latin America the course says so. The app has the whole course and it is on Google Play.
Get it on Google Play