The beauty of "You" (singular and plural)

The other day I was translating a text from English to Spanish, and God.... how annoying it was to select the correct object pronoun in Spanish. For example "I'm inviting you to my house", let's see our options, if this text is going to be read by several different people and is supposed to be used as a template: "Te/le/les/la/las/lo/los estoy invitando a mi casa" (In some cases "les/los/las" (plural) can be "them" or "la/lo" (singular) can be "her/him", it all depends on the gender, number and person). If you don't know exactly who is going to read that sentence it turns into a complete nightmare:

1. Te estoy invitando a mi casa (you - singular - informal - second person) 
2. Le estoy invitando a mi casa (you - singular - formal - neutral - third person)
3. Les estoy invitando a mi casa (you - plural - formal - neutral - third person)
4. La estoy invitando a mi casa (you - singular - feminine) / It depends on who are you speaking with, this applies when you are talking with the same person "you are inviting" and she is a woman. Otherwise, it would be like "I'm inviting her to my house" here you are speaking with someone else about that person and you can still translate the sentence like "La estoy invitando a mi casa".
5. Las estoy invitando a mi casa (you - plural - feminine) / same as above, just plural. "I'm inviting them to my house" when you are speaking about "them" with someone else.
6. Lo estoy invitando a mi casa (you - singular - masculine) / same as "la", just maculine.
7. Los estoy invitando a mi casa (you - singular - masculine) / same as "las", just maculine.

My conclusion is that if you don't know the gender or number of an object pronoun in Spanish use "le or les". I'm not a inguists just a native, please correct me if I'm wrong.

NOTE: you can't use "le/les" as articles. 

English is so inclusive, I love that. 

English 1 - Spanish 0

Great post! Thanks for sharing!

This is great info. Thanks for sharing! :blush:

Vladyslava wrote:

At one of our classes it was suggested that 'y'all' should become more dominant in the English language, as it provides some variation of forms. Because in standard English there is no formal distinction between 'you' as a second person singular, or 'you' as a second person plural.
What do you think about making *y'all* standard?

I personally hate "y'all" but it's a good suggestion when you put it that way!

Ah... You. Learning "you" and "I" in Vietnamese was a super trippy lesson for me, and to this day, I still mess it up. "You" and "I" in Vietnamese is situational, so depending on who you are talking to, the term for "you" and "I" changes. 

For example, if you are talking to an older female friend, "you" is chị, which is older sister, and "I" is em, which is younger sibling. 

Conversely, let's say you're an older male, talking to a younger person, then "you" becomes "em", and "I" is anh, which is older brother. 

Interestingly, that's the reason why Vietnamese ask your age fairly quickly - to figure out how to address "you".

Of course, being a female, I've definitely had way older males insist I refer to them as anh (older brother, usually reserved for males ~5 years older), even though, they are more in the age range of chủ or bác (young uncle/old uncle).  

meifeng wrote:

Ah... You. Learning "you" and "I" in Vietnamese was a super trippy lesson for me, and to this day, I still mess it up. "You" and "I" in Vietnamese is situational, so depending on who you are talking to, the term for "you" and "I" changes.
For example, if you are talking to an older female friend, "you" is chị, which is older sister, and "I" is em, which is younger sibling.
Conversely, let's say you're an older male, talking to a younger person, then "you" becomes "em", and "I" is anh, which is older brother.
Interestingly, that's the reason why Vietnamese ask your age fairly quickly - to figure out how to address "you".
Of course, being a female, I've definitely had way older males insist I refer to them as anh (older brother, usually reserved for males ~5 years older), even though, they are more in the age range of chủ or bác (young uncle/old uncle). :grin:

Thank you for sharing!!