The most common form for the second person singular in informal contexts in
Central America is . is the dominant second person singular pronoun in formal or polite contexts. is used in Spanish-speaking Central America, with the exception of Panama, among family members, close friends, and in other informal situations. When addressing strangers, is used. In a friendlier but still formal environment, might be appropriate, depending on the country. The Panamanian department of
Chiriquí and the Mexican state of
Chiapas are two regions where is commonly heard. Voseo originates in a formal form of address (roughly equivalent to modern
usted) that eventually began to be used among peers in Spain. While condemned by
Antonio de Nebrija on the first
Spanish language grammar in 1492, the change in usage was slower, as in the Americas it became associated with lower classes or in despective usage to servants and indigenous people. Scholar Carlos Gagini claims Spaniards that migrated kept the usage as to pretend noble origins. The use of enjoys low prestige in formal usage and is often considered incorrect. Officially, all of Central America is , however
Sandinista Nicaragua adopted as a symbol of nationalism. Educated Costa Ricans are also more comfortable using , and negative attitudes towards have been changing as of late.
Pronouns and verb conjugation As previously mentioned, one of the features of the Central American speaking style is the
voseo: the usage of the pronoun
vos for the second person singular, instead of
tú. In some Spanish-speaking regions where
voseo is used, it is sometimes considered a non-standard lower-class or regional variant, whereas in other regions
voseo is standard.
Vos is used with forms of the verb that resemble those of the second person plural (
vosotros) in Spanish from Spain. Some people prefer to say "tú" instead of "vos" while conjugating the verbs using the vos forms; for instance: tú cantás, tú bailás, tú podés, etc. This is avoided in Southern Central America, especially in Costa Rica and Nicaragua where is associated with bad education by mixing 2 different pronouns (tú-vos). The second person plural pronoun, which is
vosotros in Spain, is replaced with
ustedes in C. American Spanish, like most other Latin American dialects. While
usted is the formal second person singular pronoun, its plural
ustedes has a neutral connotation and can be used to address friends and acquaintances as well as in more formal occasions (see
T-V distinction).
Ustedes takes a grammatically third person plural verb. Usted is particularly used in Costa Rica between strangers, with foreign people and used by the vast majority of the population in Alajuela and rural areas of the country. As an example, see the conjugation table for the verb
amar in the present tense, indicative mode: :(²)
Ustedes is used throughout all of Latin America for both the familiar and formal. In Spain, it is used only in formal speech for the second person plural. Although apparently there is just a stress shift (from
amas to
amás), the origin of such a stress is the loss of the diphthong of the ancient
vos inflection from
vos amáis to
vos amás. This can be better seen with the verb "to be": from
vos sois to
vos sos. In
vowel-alternating verbs like
perder and
morir, the stress shift also triggers a change of the vowel in the
root: For the
-ir verbs, the Peninsular
vosotros forms end in
-ís, so there is no diphthong to simplify, and Central American
vos employs the same form: instead of
tú vives,
vos vivís; instead of
tú vienes,
vos venís (note the alternation). The imperative forms for
vos are identical to the plural imperative forms in Peninsular minus the final
-d (stress remains the same): •
Hablá más alto, por favor. "Speak louder, please." (
hablad in Peninsular) •
Comé un poco de torta. "Eat some cake." (
comed in Peninsular) •
Vení para acá. "Come over here." (
venid in Peninsular) The plural imperative uses the
ustedes form (i. e. the third person plural subjunctive, as corresponding to
ellos). As for the subjunctive forms of
vos verbs, most speakers use the classical
vos conjugation, employing the
vosotros form minus the
i in the final diphthong. However, some prefer to use the
tú subjunctive forms like in Paraguay. •
Espero que veas or
Espero que veás "I hope you can see" (Peninsular
veáis) •
Lo que quieras or (less used)
Lo que querás "Whatever you want" (Peninsular
queráis) In the
preterite form, an
s is often added, for instance
(vos) perdistes. This corresponds to the classical
vos conjugation found in literature. Compare Iberian Spanish form
vosotros perdisteis. However, the trailing 's' is deemed incorrect and a
faux-pas in educated use of 'vos'. Other verb forms coincide with
tú after the
i is omitted (the
vos forms are the same as
tú). •
Si salieras "If you went out" (Peninsular
salierais)
Usage of tenses Although literary works use the full spectrum of verb inflections, in colloquial Central American Spanish (as well as many other Spanish dialects), the future tense has been replaced by a verbal phrase (
periphrasis) in the spoken language. This verb phrase is formed by the verb
ir ("go") followed by the preposition
a and the main verb in the infinitive. This is akin to the English verbal phrase
going to + infinitive verb. For example: •
Creo que descansaré un poco →
Creo que voy a descansar un poco •
Mañana me visitará mi madre →
Mañana me va a visitar mi madre •
Iré a visitarla mañana →
Voy a ir a visitarla mañana The
present perfect (Spanish:
Pretérito perfecto compuesto), just like
pretérito anterior, is rarely used; so, it's replaced by simple past. •
Juan no ha llegado →
Juan no llegó todavía •
El torneo ha comenzado →
El torneo comenzó ==Lexicon==