Spanish Speakers: Do you use “tú” or “vos”?

26 comments

1. I’ve only used and heard Tu around here and have only heard Vos on the internet

2. Mexican American and tú is pretty much only used here in California.

3. What about usted?

4. In my (limited) Spanish speaking experience everyone uses tu and not vos here even Spanish Spanish speakers.

5. When I was in high school Spanish we learned of the existence of vos but never used it or learned the verb forms, the teacher said it wasn’t really used in Latin American Spanish (at least that’s what I remember her explanation being, this was 20 years ago). I haven’t noticed Spanish speakers around me using it but I’m not fluent and haven’t been, like, listening for it haha

   We learned tu for the familiar 2nd person and usted for the formal.

   Edit: per your edit, we didn’t learn vosotros either.
   yo, tu/usted, ustedes, el/ella, nosotros, ello/as

6. My dad, paternal grandpa (before he passed) and I use a Cuban dialect, my maternal grandmother uses a Chilean dialect. We use tu and nos. Vos is used more for dialects from Spain. You’ll hear that used more there. Not sure about other dialects from other South American countries but I can say in my family’s dialects from within Cuba and Chile, we don’t use vos.

   Edit to add….. paternal grandmother, not maternal.

7. Puerto Rican here. Always knew it as tu. Vos kinda has a reputation as a Spain thing.

8. I was always taught Mexican Spanish all through school and only used tú until I finally had a teacher from Spain (Morocco, technically) who made us unlearn everything and use vos.

9. Im not sure I’ve really ever heard it outside of Argentinian Spanish. I use tú not vos

10. The vast majority (about 75%) of Hispanic-Americans are Mexican, Puerto Rican, or Cuban, all of whose dialects exclusively use “tú”. Adding on that schools don’t really teach “vos”, I’d say it’s pretty rare in the US.

11. Vos, am Salvi

12. Tú, wasn’t even aware vos was a thing until recently. Note that I’m not a native speaker, but I was taught primarily by people speaking the Mexicano, Castellano and Puertorriqueño dialects.

13. Central Americans are mostly the ones who use vos. I’m Peruvian and was taught Spanish in Peru before immigrating here and I was never taught “vos “. It was “tu” and “usted”. The distinction comes from Latin American countries itself and how Spanish is used differently among us.

    Many in Spanish speaking South America overall don’t use it. The only exception I can think of is some Argentinians do use it. However, I never heard Colombians, Bolivians, or Ecuadorians use it. Even Mexicans, which are closer to Central America, don’t really use it.

    Caribbean Spanish speaking like Cubans, Dominicans, and Puerto Ricans don’t use it either. I grew up amongst them after I came over here and never heard “vos” from them.

    I have heard Salvadorean immigrants (lived in DC for awhile) use “vos” a lot. So it’s not something that it is lost for the diaspora in the USA.

14. My family is from Spain so it’s definitely tu instead of vos. We also use vosotros.

15. Sorry Salvis, but vos is the devil and I’m not using it. It’s tu!

16. Voseo Spanish is never used in America.

17. I use vos (Costa Rica and Argentina influence).

18. I though vosotros was like you all and tu was you

19. I use it in the US because I worked in the Southern Cone and also speak Portuguese, and nobody has seemed totally baffled by it, though it’s not the common word choice here.

20. I use tu or usted in a more formal setting. Most Mexicans in East LA will use this.

21. I lived in Spain. Everything was tu. All the time.

22. The only time I’ve heard vos actively used is in Guatemala.

23. Nicas use vos. Y de ahi estoy de goma

24. Second-hand story. My old roommate learned Spanish in California and used “tu” exclusively. But when she went to Honduras doing a stint in the Peace Corps, the people she met used “vos” exclusively. She came back to the US and said most of the people she talked to using “vos” looked at her strangely, so she went back to “tu.”

25. South Americans use vos

26. I took 5 years of Spanish and I’m not too shabby at it. We are taught tú as most of the curriculum I was taught is based off of “proper Spanish” from Spain, or Mexico. That said, apparently we tend to sound like the equivalent of Ye Olde English to native Spanish speakers.

    I translate for my boss, we have a student who is bilingual and her mother only knows conversational English. I keep it sharp by talking to my student in Spanish as much as possible. Her family is from Mexico, and they also use tú.