Question

After looking through the sentence comparison examples, what do you think the guidelines are that tell you when to use the different forms of "you?"

Write down your thoughts about this grammar principle. Specifically, write down a "rule" that you think Spanish uses to explain the difference between tú and usted.

Then check out the grammar pattern in the next link to see if your hunch was correct.

Answer 1

The reason why you get the same result when translating to English is simple, they mean you.

However let me explain the differences:

Usted Is regularly used to denote respect to the person you are talking to; this could be your elders, someone older than you or simply someone who inspires your respect. For instance let’s say you are talking to a priest and you want to tell him that he is very smart:

Sacerdote, es usted muy intelilgente.

Now let’s say you are in school and you want to tell your classmate that he is very smart:

Amigo, tú eres muy inteligente.

Now, in regards to tú/vos they are basically used on the same context, however vos is mostly used South America, tú is more common in Spain and in North and Central American countries like Mexico.