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Quick Spanish question | ||
Tags: Polite/Informal Forms | Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| sillygoose1 Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 4637 days ago 566 posts - 814 votes  Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish, French Studies: German, Latin | Message 1 of 5 25 October 2013 at 2:06am | IP Logged |
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Say you have your boss over your house for dinner with your family.
When addressing them at once, do you use "vosotros" or "ustedes"? Does ustedes come into play even if there is only one person to whom you would use it? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Gosiak Triglot Senior Member Poland Joined 5127 days ago 241 posts - 361 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, German Studies: Norwegian, Welsh | Message 2 of 5 25 October 2013 at 11:52am | IP Logged |
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I'd use "vosotros" there is no need to create the politeness distance because of one person. You could always single ot your boss from the group by referring to him/her separately using "usted".
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| Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4640 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian | Message 3 of 5 25 October 2013 at 2:44pm | IP Logged |
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In most Latin American countries this is not a problem as you would use "ustedes" in all cases when addressing more than one person. The "vosotros" form is not used in most places.
In Spain, it would depend. The tendency is that people use "usted" less and less, and in many cases people will say "tú" to the boss as well. However, if you have to use the polite form, I think Gosiak's recommendation is good. You could start by addressing the boss separately, and then talk to the other members of your family, e.g. "¿Usted quiere más vino?... ¿Y vostros, queréis más? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Medulin Tetraglot Senior Member Croatia Joined 4669 days ago 1199 posts - 2192 votes Speaks: Croatian*, English, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Norwegian, Hindi, Nepali | Message 4 of 5 25 October 2013 at 3:12pm | IP Logged |
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In Spain (outside of Canary Islands), using Vd has more to due with the age of the person spoken to than with formality, people tend to use Vd only with very old unknown people.
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| culebrilla Senior Member United States Joined 3998 days ago 246 posts - 436 votes Speaks: Spanish | Message 5 of 5 18 December 2013 at 10:12pm | IP Logged |
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Old thread but, I will resurrect it. Since you are in the US, you VERY rarely will ever meet a Spanish speaker from Spain in person. Thus, I would highly recommend using the "ustedes" form for the second person plural. Plus, here in the US, the "vosotros" just kind of sounds weird and foreign since the only people that use it are the Spanish, some very formal writings (like the bible in Spanish, you will use things like "tened fe"), and the Americans that studied abroad in Spain. But not all of them; I was in Spain a long time and don't ever use the vosotros.
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