Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The most basic is the difference between tú (vos in areas with voseo) and usted: tú or vos is the "familiar" form, and usted, derived from the third-person form "your grace" (vuestra merced), is the "polite" form. The appropriate usage of those forms is fundamental to interpersonal communication.
Similarly, the participle agrees with the subject when it is used with ser to form the "true" passive voice (e.g. La carta fue escrita ayer 'The letter was written [got written] yesterday.'), and also when it is used with estar to form a "passive of result", or stative passive (as in La carta ya está escrita 'The letter is already written.').
The use of usted and ustedes as a polite form of address is universal. However, there are variations in informal address. Ustedes replaces vosotros in part of Andalusia, the Canary Islands, and Latin America, except in the liturgical or poetic of styles. In some parts of Andalusia, the pronoun ustedes is used with the standard vosotros endings.
The Spanish copulas are ser and estar.The latter developed as follows: stare → *estare → estar. The copula ser developed from two Latin verbs. Thus its inflectional paradigm is a combination: most of it derives from svm (to be) but the present subjunctive appears to come from sedeo (to sit) via the Old Spanish verb seer.
The possessive for usted and ustedes is su(s) as for other third-person pronouns. The ambiguity that this causes (especially considering that su(s) already covers "his", "her", "its" and "their") can be alleviated by treating usted(es) as a noun and thereby saying la casa de ustedes instead of su casa.
In English, the sentence "The boy is boring" uses a different adjective than "The boy is bored". In Spanish, the difference is made by the choice of ser or estar. El chico es aburrido uses ser to express a permanent trait ("The boy is boring"). El chico está aburrido uses estar to express a temporary state of mind ("The boy is bored").
The two subjunctives have their origins in Latin; from the past perfect indicative came the -ra form, and from the past perfect subjunctive came the -se form. [62] Both subjunctives are found in Spain, but the -se one is almost extinct or much rarer in Latin America, where it is seen as a characteristic of the Spanish of Spain; Latin American ...
One form is the same as in English: zijn (to be) with the present participle, e.g., Het schip is zinkende (The ship is sinking). This form puts stress on the continuous aspect and often gives some dramatic overtone, making it not commonly used. The second method is the most common in Dutch.