Words for People and Objects

Pronouns

Spanish has six subject pronouns: yo (I), tú (you, informal), él/ella/usted (he/she/you, formal), nosotros/nosotras (we), vosotros/vosotras (you, plural, informal), ellos/ellas/ustedes (they/you, plural, formal).
Unlike English, Spanish subject pronouns can be omitted in sentences as the verb endings imply the subject: for example, “Soy de España” (I am from Spain).
Object pronouns replace the noun that the verb is directly acting upon and appear before a conjuated verb or attached to infinitives, gerunds, or positive commands: me (me), te (you), lo/la (him/her/it/you, formal), nos (us), os (you, plural informal), los/las (them/you, plural formal).

Spanish nouns are masculine or feminine, and this gender must match with the corresponding article and adjective. For instance, “el libro verde” (the green book) but “la casa verde” (the green house).
The general rule is nouns ending in -o are masculine and in -a are feminine, but there are exceptions.
Nouns ending in -ión, -dad, and -tad are usually feminine.
To make a noun plural, add -s to nouns ending in a vowel and -es to those ending in a consonant. For example, libro becomes libros and profesor becomes profesores.
Don’t forget adjectives must agree with nouns in both gender and number.

Some words have irregular plural forms, for example, el joven (the young man) becomes los jóvenes (the young men).
Words ending in -s, -x, or an accented vowel in the singular do not change in the plural: la crisis (the crisis) becomes las crisis (the crises).

Possessive pronouns are words like “mine,” “yours,” “his,” “ours” etc. In Spanish these are: mio/a/os/as, tuyo/a/os/as, suyo/a/os/as, nuestro/a/os/as, vuestro/a/os/as, suyo/a/os/as.
They always agree with the noun they replace in gender and number, not the person who “owns” the item.
They must be used with the definite article (el, la, los, las), except after ‘ser’ when identifying something that belongs to you - “Es mio” (It’s mine).

Spanish has three sets of demonstrative pronouns: este/esta/esto (this, these) for close objects, ese/esa/eso (that, those) for objects at medium distance and aquel/aquella/aquello (that, those) for objects far away.
Like possessive pronouns, they agree in gender and number with the noun they replace.

Interrogative pronouns are used to ask questions. For instance, ¿quién(es)? (who?), ¿qué? (what?), ¿cuál(es)? (which?) and ¿cómo? (how?).
¿Qué? and ¿quién(es)? are followed by a singular or plural verb depending upon the noun they refer to: “¿Quién es?” (Who is it?) but “¿Quiénes son?” (Who are they?).

Reflexive pronouns refer to the same person that the subject of the verb refers to, and indicate that the subject is performing the action on themselves. These are: me, te, se, nos, os, se.
They are used with a reflexive verb, for example: “Yo me llamo…” (I call myself…) or “Tú te peinas…” (You comb yourself…).