Conjugating Vos

How to Conjugate Vos

See also Spanish Grammar

In Argentina and some other Latin American countries, people use the pronoun vos in place of tú.

Vos is not the same as vosotros (which is used in Spain). In grammatical terms, vos is an informal second-person singular pronoun. Vosotros is an informal second-person plural pronoun.

More simply, vos replaces tú (in Argentina, Uruguay, etc.) while vosotros replaces ustedes (in informal conversation in Spain).

For example, in Argentina you will be asked the question “¿De dónde sos (vos)? instead of “¿De dónde eres (tú)?”. Both questions mean “Where are you from?” The difference is that the first one uses vos and the second uses tú.

The use of vos is called voseo.

Rules for Conjugating Vos

Verbs are easily conjugated when using vos. To conjugate verbs in the present:

-ar verbs: drop ar and add ás to the stem
-er verbs: drop er and add és to the stem
-ir verbs: drop ir and add ís to the stem

For example:

Vos hablás (you speak)
Vos comés (you eat)
Vos decís (you say)

Note that the stem is regular. For example:

Vos tenés (you have)
Tú tienes (you have)

The only irregular verbs are ser (sos), ir (vas) and haber (has).

Vos sos (you are)
Vos vas (you go)

To conjugate verbs in the command form:

-ar verbs: drop r and add á to the stem
-er verbs: drop r and add é to the stem
-ir verbs: drop r and add í to the stem

For example:

Miráme (look at me)
Comé mucho (eat lots)
Vení acá (come here)
Decíme la verdad (tell me the truth)

All other verb conjugations (preterite, imperfect, future, etc.) are identical to tú.

For example:

¿Qué hiciste vos? (what did you do?)
¿Qué hiciste tú? (what did you do?)

¿Dónde irás vos? (where will you go?)
¿Dónde irás tú? (where will you go?)

Prepositional Objects

When using vos, make the following replacements:

Use con vos instead of contigo
Use a vos instead of a ti