Comparative Grammar 1.5. Subject Personal Pronouns in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and French

In this comparative grammar lesson of Romance languages: Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, & French, we study subject personal pronouns in each language. Subject personal pronouns in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and French serve the same function as their English counterparts by pointing out who carries out the action described by the verb.

Table of Contents

• List of Subject Personal Pronouns in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and French
• Dropping the Subject Personal Pronoun
• Formal vs Informal Singular/Plural “You”
• Formal vs Informal “We” in Brazilian Portuguese
• “Lui” vs “Egli” and “Lei” vs “Ella” in Italian
• Equivalent to the English Subject Pronoun “it”
• French Special Pronoun “On”
• Level I – Basic

List of Subject Personal Pronouns in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and French

The following are the subject personal pronouns in the four Romance languages: Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and French.

Dropping the Subject Personal Pronoun

More often than not, the subject personal pronoun is dropped in Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian because the verb endings can be sufficient to refer to the subject, as you will learn in Lesson 6 of this level.

Formal vs Informal Singular/Plural “You”

There are two forms of the singular “you” in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and French: the first is informal and is used with familiar people (e.g., child, relative, friend, peer, etc.), and the second is the formal, which is used with older people and with people we are not familiar with or to show respect.

Similarly, there are two forms of the plural “you” in Spanish and Italian:

In Latin America, “vosotros” is not used; instead, “ustedes” is used for both the formal and informal plural versions of “you.” Throughout the lessons, we keep the “vosotros” conjugation for reference only. However, feel free to ignore it if you want to focus exclusively on Latin American Spanish.

In some Spanish-speaking countries like Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, El Salvador, and Nicaragua, the informal “tú” is replaced with “vos.”

The second-person singular form “tu” is used in Portugal and in some parts of Brazil:

• In Portugal, the form “tu” is informal and “você” is formal. The form “tu” is conjugated differently but will not be discussed in the lessons to come.
• In Brazil, the form “você” is the widely used form for the informal second-person singular pronoun. However, some parts of Brazil use “tu” instead but keep the verb conjugation the same as “você.” In general, “o senhor” (literally, “the gentleman”) and “a senhora” (literally, “the lady”) are used in Brazil as a formal way to address older people, with people we are not familiar with, or to show respect.

Throughout these lessons, we use the standard Brazilian Portuguese “você” with informal second person singular and “o senhor/a senhora” with formal second person singular.

Notice that, in Italian, the formal (or polite) forms “Lei” (you – singular) and “Loro” (you – plural) are capitalized to distinguish them from the non-capitalized “lei” (she) and “loro” (they), respectively.

Formal vs Informal “We” in Brazilian Portuguese

In everyday life in Brazil, there is an informal alternative to the first-person plural “nós” (we), that is “a gente” (literally “the people”).

We use the third-person singular verb conjugation with “a gente.”

“Lui” vs “Egli” and “Lei” vs “Ella” in Italian

There are two more pronouns in Italian that can replace “lui” (he) and “lei” (she). The two pronouns are: “egli” (he) and “ella” (she), and are rarely used in ordinary conversation.

Equivalent to the English Subject Pronoun “it”

Notice that we did not include an equivalent to the English subject pronoun “it.” Since the subject pronoun is often dropped, as we will see in Lesson 6 of this level, the pronoun “it” is often not used in Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian. In formal speech, these are the alternatives:

• Spanish: The neuter personal pronoun “ello,” often translated as “it,” can be used to refers to a statement or a situation, e.g., “Ello no significa mucho” (It does not mean much). In spoken Spanish, we can also use the masculine demonstrative article “esto,” meaning “this,” e.g., “Esto no significa mucho” (It does not mean much).
• Portuguese: We can use a neuter demonstrative pronoun like “isso,” meaning “this/that,” e.g., “Isso não significa muito” (It does not mean much).
• Italian: The pronouns “esso,” (masculine) and “essa,” (feminine), meaning “it,” can be used. The plural equivalents are: “essi,” (masculine) and “esse,” (feminine), respectively.
• French: The third-person singular pronouns “il” and “elle” are also used as the equivalent to the English subject pronoun “it,” when referring to a masculine or feminine object. When referring to a statement or a fact, the masculine pronoun “il” is often used, e.g., “il est important” (it is important).

In Summary:

French Special Pronoun “On”

In French, the special pronoun “on” can mean “we,” “one,” or “they,” especially in passive constructions.

For example, “On va à la plage aujourd’hui” (We go to the beach today), “On parle français ici” (We/They speak French here), etc.

Note that the pronoun “on” uses the third-person singular conjugation.

Next: Present Indicative Tense I

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