Personal pronouns
Spanish usually drops the subject pronoun, because the verb ending already says who is acting. Learn the pronouns anyway, or you will trip over él and ella, or over tú and usted. Good news about the plural: in Latin America the ladder has five rungs, not six. ustedes is how you say 'you all' — to your grandmother, to a police officer, and to your two best friends alike.
Singular
yo = I. tú = you, to a friend, a child, someone your own age. usted = you, the polite one: a stranger, an older person, the person behind the counter. él = he. ella = she. There is no subject pronoun for 'it' — every noun is masculine or feminine, and when the subject is a thing you simply leave the pronoun out: Es mi casa. = 'It's my house.'
Plural: five rows, not six
nosotros = we (nosotras when the group is all women). ustedes = you all. ellos = they, for men or a mixed group; ellas = they, all women. Fix this in your head today: ustedes is not the formal option, it is the only option. Talking to your two closest friends in Lima or in CDMX, you say ustedes. Books written for Spain add a sixth row for a familiar 'you all'; here that row does not exist, and nobody will expect it from you. Better still, ustedes takes exactly the same verb form as ellos — ellos son and ustedes son, ellos son amigos and ustedes son amigos. Two labels, one form to learn.
When to drop the pronoun
soy can only mean 'I am', so Yo soy Camila and Soy Camila say the same thing — and the shorter one is what you will hear. Put the pronoun back when you want emphasis or contrast: Yo soy de Bogotá y ella es de Quito. Or on its own: ¿Tú o yo? = 'You or me?'
Greetings
Hola works at any hour. Buenos días until noon, Buenas tardes through the afternoon, Buenas noches once it is dark — that last one is both 'good evening' and 'good night'. On the way out: Adiós, though Hasta luego and Hasta mañana are far more common. ¿Cómo estás? = how are you? to a friend; ¿Cómo está usted? to someone you are treating politely; ¿Cómo están? to a group. ¿Cómo te llamas? = what's your name?, literally 'how do you call yourself'. You answer Me llamo Diego. or just Soy Diego. When you are introduced, say Mucho gusto.
tú or usted?
Start with usted for strangers, for anyone much older, and for people serving you — it reads as respect, not as distance. tú arrives fast in Mexico, Colombia and the Caribbean, more slowly in Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia; let the other person switch first and follow. Titles carry weight across the region: don and doña with a first name (don Carlos, doña Rosa), profe for a teacher. And if you miss what someone said, ¿Cómo? is the polite way to ask for it again — in Mexico you will also hear ¿Mande?
