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Prepositional Pronouns

Definition

A prepositional pronoun is to replace a noun that names a person or thing following a preposition, serving as the object of that preposition.

Standard prepositional pronouns

In the simplest case, prepositional pronouns are nearly identical to the subject pronouns, except in the first- and second-person singular form, replaces yo and ti replaces , respectively. Note that takes an accent to distinguish it from mi, the possessive adjective, which means my. Another exception is for the third-person singular, there is a pronoun for neuter: ello, meaning “it”.

Shortcut:

  • 1st person:
  • 2nd person: ti
  • 3rd person:
    • singular: él, ella, ello
  • plural forms are identical to the subject pronouns

Pronouns with con

Certain pronouns change their form when following the preposition con (“with”):

Person Singular Plural
1st conmigo con nosotoros(as)
2nd contigo con vosotoros(as)
3rd consigo consigo

Complication:

  • In the third-person forms, singular or plural, consigo is used when the subject of the sentence is the same as the object
  • Otherwise, the full form, con él, con ella, con usted, con ello, con ellos, con ellas, con ustedes should be used.
  • In programming language:
    if subject == object:
      consigo
    else:
      full form
    

Subject pronouns with prepositions

There are six exceptional prepositions that when preceding a pronoun, the subject form of the pronoun should be used. These are:

entre (between)     menos (except)
excepto (except)    salvo (except)
incluso (including) según (according to)

For example:

Juan esta entre tú y yo.
Todos bailan excepto él.

Reflexive pronouns following a preposition

Reflexive pronouns are similar to the English counterparts “myself”, “yourself”, “himself”. When following a preposition (e.g., a), they come in the following forms:

Person Singular Plural
1st a mí mismo(a) a nosotros(as) mismos(as)
2nd a ti mismo(a) a vosotros(as) mismos(as)
3rd a sí mismo(a) a sí mismos(as)

Note: singular or plural, the third-person is always .

Subject Pronouns

Definition

As its name suggests, a subject pronoun is used to replace the subject noun of a sentence.

In English there are seven subject pronouns: “I”, “you”, “he”, “she”, “it”, “we” and “they”. In Spanish, there are twelve: two pronouns take gender (nosotros and vosotros), and there are four pronouns for “you”.

Singular Plural
yo nosotros(as)
vosotros(as)
usted ustedes
él ellos
ella ellas

NB: there is no “it” in Spanish.

Verb conjugation

The conjugated verb must agree in number(first-/second-/third-person) with the subject. This is true for -ar, -er and -ir verbs:

Person -ar -er -ir
1st -o, -amos -o, -emos, -o, -imos
2nd -as, -áis -es, -éis -es, -ís
3rd -a, -an -e, -en -e, -en