Vos

Overview

While much of the Spanish-speaking world uses "tú" to address someone informally, another option exists in much of the Americas: the "vos" form. As shown in the map below, in some countries, such as Argentina, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay, & Uruguay, "vos" is the more common or the only way to address someone. In others, such as Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, & Venezuela, both "vos" and "tú" may be used.

It is important to note that the "vos" form can vary in conjugation across countries and regions; the remainder of this page will describe this form as it exists in normative Rioplatense (Argentina) Spanish. For more information, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voseo

Vos vs tú

In nearly all verb tenses, "vos" and "tú" share the same conjugation; the exceptions to this are the present indicative, affirmative commands, and some pronouns.

Indicativo

Mandatos

Recall that for informal commands such as "vos", the command form is different depending on whether the command is affirmative (i.e. telling someone "yes, do this") or negative (i.e. telling them "no, don't do this").

Affirmative vos commands, used only in parts of America for informal situations, simply drop the -r from the infinitive, which creates the need for a written accent (poner → poné). There is only one irregular: for ir affirmative commands, use either the tú form (ve), or switch to andar (andá).

Negative vos commands, like all other negative commands, use the present subjunctive.