Saying you are in the plural

So far, you've been practising forming sentences with almost all of the different forms of ser and estar. Here's a recap:

So as you can see, there's a gap in our table. We haven't considered the case of saying you ... when speaking to more than one person, either formal or informal.

you are ... addressing somebody on formal terms

You should now be familiar with the difference between the tú form (eres, estás), used to address somebody on familiar terms, and the usted form (es, está), used to address somebody on more formal terms, e.g. a boss or teacher.

We'll look at the formal plural form first because it's a bit simpler. In the singular, the formal mode of address actually uses the third person or he/she form (so es can mean either "he is", "she is", or "you are" when addressing somebody formally). A similar situation exists in the plural: to address more than one person on formal terms, we actually use the third person plural form– the "they" form, son or están. For example:

you are ... on familiar terms

If you're addressing two or more people on familiar terms, for example a group of friends, you may need to learn another verb form, depending on which variety of Spanish you're learning.

In Latin American varieties of Spanish (including Mexican Spanish which you can practise here), things are straightforward:

In Peninsular Spanish– the variety spoken in Spain, essentially what we call Castillian Spanish here– a difference is made:

This gives the following familiar plural "you" forms in Peninsular Spanish:

In the endings -ais (with or without the accent) and -ois, ai or oi is always pronounced as a diphthong, in other words as a "glide" between two vowels in a single syllable (a bit like in the English word boy).

Exercise: make sentences meaning you are in the plural

Now to practise making some sentences meaning you are in the plural. This time, it's more significant whether you choose Castillian or Mexican Spanish, as this will determine whether you practise the sois and estáis forms or not. We'll also mix in some of the other forms of address, including you singular, for revision purposes.

Next...

You've now covered all of the forms of the two verbs meaning to be in Spanish! On the next page, you can practise using all of the forms of ser and estar to make sure you remember everything!

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