Personal Pronouns
Personal pronouns are used either to refer to the participants in a conversation (‘I/ me’, ‘you’, ‘we/ us’) or in place of nouns or names (e.g., ‘I can see him’ instead of ‘I can see Jason’). Despite being called personal pronouns, they can in the 3rd person refer also to animals, things or neuter concepts.

Personal pronouns can be categorized into 4, which are:

• Subject pronouns
• Direct and indirect object pronouns
• Prepositional object pronouns
• Reflexive pronouns

Each category has forms that correspond to the first, second, and third person singular and plural. Besides that, the Spanish pronouns used to address others differ depending on the appropriate level of formality.

Furthermore, there are variations in usage between Spain and Latin America, as well as within Spain.

PERSON	SUBJECT	DIRECT OBJECT	INDIRECT OBJECT	PREPOSITIONAL OBJECT
Singular
1st	yo (I)	me (me)	me (to me)	mí (me)
2nd	tú (you) familiar	te (you)	te (to you)	ti (you)
	usted (you) polite	lo (masc.) or la (fem.) (you)	le (to you)	usted (you)
	vos (you) familiar [LA]	te (you)	te (to you)	vos (you) [LA]
3rd	él (he)	lo (him, it masc.)	le (to him/it)	él (him)
	ella (she)	la (her, it fem.)	le (to her/it)	ella (her)
	ello (it neuter)	lo (it neuter)	le (to it, neuter)	ello (it neuter)
Plural
1st	nosotros (we) masc.	nos (us)	nos (to us)	nosotros (us)
	nosotras (we) fem.	nos (us)	nos (to us)	nosotras (us)
2nd	vosotros (you) masc. familiar [SP]	os (you) [SP]	os (to you) [SP]	vosotros (you) [SP]
	vosotras (you) fem. familiar [SP]	os (you) [SP]	os (to you) [SP]	vosotras (you) [SP]
	ustedes (you) polite [SP and LA] familiar [LA]	los (masc.) or las (fem.) (you)	les (to you)	ustedes (you)
3rd	ellos (they) masc.	los (them)	les (to them)	ellos (them)
	ellas (they) fem.	las (them)	les (to them)	ellas (them)

1. Subject Pronouns
The subject of a sentence is the person or thing which performs the action. Subject pronouns will be used to replace this person or thing.

Uses of Spanish Subject Pronouns
Rule
In Spanish, subject pronouns may be necessary for emphasis, to indicate a change in reference, or for clarification.

For extra emphasis, an appropriate form of mismo ‘myself,' ‘yourself,' etc. can be used:

Example
I ‘m ready.
Yo estoy listo.

You and I are in love with spicy food.
Tú y yo estamos enamorados de la comida picante.

You yourself broke the vase.
Usted mismo rompió el jarrón.

Subject pronouns can also be used in the absence of a verb:
Who used my phone? – ‘Me.’
¿Quién utilizó mi teléfono? – ‘Yo.’


2. Direct and Indirect Object Pronouns
Direct and indirect object pronouns in Spanish are weak pronouns that can be used only in conjunction with verbs.

A. Direct Object
The direct object is a word either 'me', 'him', 'us' and 'them', which is used to replace the noun of whoever or whatever receives the verb's direct action ('him' in 'She slapped him').

Direct object pronouns
A direct object pronoun is used to replace a direct object in a sentence, it usually comes BEFORE the verb.

PERSON	SINGULAR FORM	PLURAL FORM
1st	ne (me)	nos (us)
2nd	te (informal you)	os (informal you)
3rd	lo, la (it, him, her, formal you)	los, las (them, formal you)

Tips
The 3rd person direct object pronoun agrees in gender (as well as number) with the item referred to. For example, use ‘lo’ for anillo which means ring in masculine form.

Example
a. Direct Object Pronouns and Things
I lost my glasses. – I lost them!
Perdí mis gafas. – ¡Los perdí!

In above example, the glasses were missing.
Action: Missing
Direct Object: Glasses (fem.)
Direct Object Pronoun: los

b. Direct Object Pronouns and People
The boys bullied the girl. – They bullied her.
Los chicos intimidaron a la niña. – La intimidaron.

In above example, the girl was bullied by the boys.
Action: Bully
Direct Object: Girl (fem.)
Direct Object Pronoun: la

c. Direct Objects and Phrases
The kids ate lots of cookies. – Los niños comieron muchas galletas.
The kids ate them. – Los niños las galletas.

In above example, the snacks ate by the kids.
Action: Eat
Direct Object: Cookies (fem.)
Direct Object Pronoun: las


B. Indirect Object
An indirect object is the beneficiary of the action ('me' in 'They teach me'). We can refer this as ‘to whom’, ‘for whose’?

Indirect Object Pronouns
The most common use of indirect object pronouns is to indicate to whom something is given, directed, or said, it usually comes BEFORE the verb.

PERSON	SINGULAR FORM	PLURAL FORM
1st	me (to/for me)	nos (to/for us)
2nd	te (to/for informal you)	os (to/for informal you)
3rd	le (to/for it, him, her, formal you)	les (to/for them, formal you)

In Spanish, it is common to see an ‘indirect object’ comes together with an ‘indirect object pronoun’ in a sentence. An ‘indirect object pronoun’ can be used with or without the ‘indirect object’.

This is to further clarify the beneficiary of action.

Example
a. Indicate the person for whose benefit or gain something is done
I have done their laundry.
Les he lavar la ropa.

In above example, I’ve done doing the laundry from them.
Action: Do laundry/ wash clothes
Indirect Object: Them
Indirect Object Pronoun: les

b. Indicate to whom something is given, directed or said
What has he said to you?
¿Qué te ha dicho?

In above example, someone asked what has the person said to me.
Action: Said
Indirect Object: Me (fem.)
Indirect Object Pronoun: te

c. Identifies the person to whom the expression applies
It was difficult for them to learn.
Les resultaba difícil aprender.

In above example, it says that something was difficult for them to learn. (lesson, movement)
Action: Learn
Indirect Object: Them
Indirect Object Pronoun: les

d. Referring to anyone from whom things are taken away
Buy a rose from that girl.
Comprar una rosa de esa chica.5

In above example, it says that the rose was bought from that girl.
Action: Bought
Indirect Object: That girl
Indirect Object Pronoun: none


3. Prepositional Object Pronouns
Prepositional pronouns in Spanish are used after prepositions, rationally, to highlight the noun they replace, and therefore are a subclass of disjunctive or stressed pronouns found in other languages.

A. Prepositions
Like the English words ‘to’, ‘from’, ‘on’, ‘with’, Spanish prepositions are used to link words and express a relationship between them.

Uses of Spanish Prepositional Object Pronouns
Prepositional object pronouns have the same forms as subject pronouns, except in the cases of ‘yo’ and ‘tú’, for which the corresponding prepositional object pronouns are ‘mí’ and ‘ti’ respectively.

PERSON	SUBJECT PRONOUN	SINGULAR FORM	PLURAL FORM
1st	yo	mí (me)	nosotros (us)
2nd	tú	ti (you)	vostoros (you all)
	usted	usted (you)	ustedes (you)
3rd	vosotros	vos (you)	vostoros (you all)
	él	él (him, it)	ellos (them)
	ella	ella (her)	ellas (them)
		ello (it neuter)
	sí	oneself

The majority of the above should look very familiar as the third person singular and all plurals are identical to Spanish subject pronouns.

‘mí’, ‘ti’, and ‘ello’ are new more unfamiliar, but it is easy to remember as they are the prepositional form of the first and second singular pronoun.

Example
I have a present for you.
Tengo un regalo para ti.

They were running towards you.
Estaban corriendo hacia vos.

I’m next to them.
Estoy al lado de ellas.

B. Con Exceptions
Combination of con with ‘mí’ and ‘ti’, namely conmigo and contigo.

When the prepositional object pronoun is used after the preposition con ‘with’, 3 of the prepositional pronouns will change its form.

• con + mí = conmigo (with me)
• con + ti = contigo (with you)
• con + sí = consigo (with himself/herself)

Example
They are eating with you.
Están comiendo contigo.

He always sings to himself.
Siempre se canta a sí mismo.

He is dating with me.
Él está saliendo conmigo.

Exceptions
‘mí’ and ‘ti’ are NOT used after these 6 prepositions.

PREPOSITIONS
Between	entre
Including	incluso
According to	según
Except	excepto
Except	salvo
Except	menos

‘Excepto’, ‘salvo’ and ‘menos’ carries the same meaning although they have different definition.

Example
Everyone but John said yes. Todos excepto John dijeron que sí.
Todos salvo John dijeron que sí.
Todos menos John dijeron que sí.

C. Neuter Prepositional Pronoun
The neuter prepositional pronoun ‘ello’ is used when talking about something non-specific or abstract (it). But it still depends on the gender of the nouns.

Example
Erik Albers wrote a report about it on his blog.
Erik Albers escribió un informe sobre ello en su blog.

4. Reflexive Pronouns
Reflexive pronouns appear to suggest that the verb's subject is performing the action on ITSELF (‘The hamster was cleaning itself.’). While direct and indirect object pronouns, on the other hand, indicate that the subject is performing the action on others.

English form of reflexive pronouns ends in ‘self’ or ‘selves’. Now let’s take a look at how Spanish reflexive pronouns work.

PERSON	SINGULAR FORM	PLURAL FORM
1st	me (matches with yo)	nos (matches with nosotros)
2nd	te (matches with tú) OR se (matches with usted)	os (matches with vosotros) OR se (matches with ustedes)
3rd	se (matches with él or ella)	se (matches with ellos or ellas)

Just like object pronouns, reflexive pronouns usually* directly comesbefore the verb.

Example
I’m taking a bath.
Me baño.

We see each other.
Nos vemos.

We do not trust ourselves.
No nos fiamos de nosotras.

Tips
Particularly after the preposition entre ‘among’, the prepositional reflexive pronoun 'sí' is often replaced by the non-reflexive prepositional object pronouns ‘él’, ‘ella’, ‘ellos’, ‘ellas’, ‘usted’, or ‘ustedes’.