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Look-up table for Spanish pronouns

A pronoun is a word that stands in place of something such as 'it' or 'him'.
I have ordered this table so you can see the patterns and remember them better:
Subject Direct object Indirect object
(to / from)		 Reflexive
(-self)		 Prepositional form
yo (I) me (me) me me (myself) mí (accent)
tú (you) te (you) te te (yourself) ti (no accent)
nosotros/as (we) nos (us) nos nos (ourselves) nosotros/as
vosotros/as (you all) os (you all) os os (yourselves) vosotros/as (used in Spain only)
él (he) lo (him / it - masculine) le se (himself) él
ella (she) la (her / it - feminine) le se (herself) ella
usted (you) lo / la (you - male / female) le se (yourself) usted
ellos (they) los (them - people or things) les se (themselves) ellos
ellas (they) las (them - people or things) les se (themselves) ellas
ustedes (you all) los / las (you all) les se (yourselves) ustedes

Pronoun
 Meaning
Subject The subject of that part of the sentence or the 'doer' of the sentence e.g. He spoke Spanish. It is often missed out as the endings of the verb usually make it clear who is doing the action.
Direct object This is used when you directly mean the person or thing.
The person or thing has something done to e.g. I saw him
Indirect object This is used when you do not directly mean the person or thing, often translating 'to ...' or 'from ...' e.g.
I gave it to him - here, to him is a reference to him
I bought a car from her
Reflexive This is a sort of -self use like 'sit yourself down' or 'behave yourself!'. If you see in books, words like "sentarse" and you think "Oh, I thought verbs only end in -ar, -er or -ir" then you are correct, but that 'se' word shows it is a reflexive verb - sentarse = to sit oneself (down), sentar + se. Some verbs can either be used with or without these -self words
Prepositional These are not used with verbs. They are used with other words like for, by and with e.g.
No es para mí, es para ti = It's not for me, it's for you

There is another pronoun - sí which is sometimes used but you rarely see it:
fuera de sí = beside oneself
para sí (mismo) = to or for himself / herself
entre sí = amongst themselves

Note that 'se' is used when two words beginning with L are put together
You replace 'le' with 'se' when you use another word beginning with L otherwise it would be harder to pronounce, like a tongue-twister:
Se lo dije = I told it to him (le + lo = se lo)
Quiero dárselos
Se los quiero dar		 } I want to give them to him (le + los = se los)

Since se or le can mean to him / her / it you, you may see a clarifier afterwards such as:
Voy a decírselo a él = I am going to tell it to him
Voy a decírselo a ella = I am going to tell it to her
Voy a decírselo a usted = I am going to tell it to you
But the context of the sentence may make it clear what you mean so you usually don't have to clarify what you mean.

The position of these words

It is quite easy. If you use two pronouns together, then the person comes before an object so it is always 'me lo' or 'nos la' etc.
Put the pronoun or pronouns before one verb or before haber = have (e.g. he hecho = I have done):
(haber = to have done something, tener = to have a possession)
Me debes cinco euros = you owe me five euros
Lo tengo = I have it
¿Lo ves? = Do you see it?
Lo he visto = I have seen him (he = I have - remember it's pronounced without the silent 'h')
La he visto = I have seen her
Me lo han dado = They have given it to me (han = they have)
No nos había dicho nada = He hasn't told us anything (literally - they didn't say nothing to us). If you are wondering about the word había, it is a word in the imperfect tense and sort of means something like "was having".


There is a bit of freedom in where you place the pronouns if you use two verbs together in a normal statement or question. The pronouns can be put at the end of an unchanged verb (one that ends in 'r'):
¿Podría dármelo? = Would you give it to me? (note the accent on dármelo to force the stress in the same place as dar = to give or darlo = to give it)
Or they can be placed (more frequently) before the first verb:
¿Me lo podría dar?
Also the same thing applies if you use the -ando / -iendo ending with verbs (to say that you are doing something right at this moment) - this is a use of the progressive or continuous tense. Don't worry if you haven't learned this yet:
Estoy esperándolo
Lo estoy esperando		 } I am waiting for him (right at this moment)

In commands, the pronouns are always put after a command when it is a positive command (one without negative words such as don't or never):
¡Dígamelo! = Tell it to me! (notice that the accent is used to force the stress back in the same place as the word ¡diga! = tell! which is from the word decir = to say / tell)
and they are always placed before the verb with a negative command:
¡No me lo diga! = Don't tell it to me!

Here are a few more examples:
Puedo verlo = I can see it / him
Voy a enviarselo = I am going to send it to him (le + lo = se lo)
No sé esa palabra. Voy a buscarla en el diccionario= I don't know that word. I'm going to search for it in the dictionary (notice I used 'la' here to refer to a feminine object - la palabra = the word)
¿Dónde están mis llaves? Las he puesto sobre la mesa = Where are my keys? I have put them on the table (las is referring to las llaves)

Summary:

Put the pronouns before a verb:
Put the pronouns after the verb:
Notice that when they come after the verb, they are stuck together without spaces

Some exceptions:

Use the subject pronouns yo and tú instead of mí and ti only with these words:
entre = between
excepto = except for (same meaning as salvo)
hasta (only if you mean 'even' e.g. hasta tú puedes hacerlo = even you can do it) - this can also mean 'up to' or 'until'
incluso = even
salvo = except for (same meaning as excepto)
menos = except
según = according to (según tú = according to you - also: según lo dejó = just as he left it, según se vea = depending on how one sees it)

special forms with 'con = with'
conmigo = with me
contigo = with you (familiar form)
consigo = with him / her / it / you e.g. se llevó el libro consigo = he took the book with him(self)

mos + nos
I just want to mention that if you put a word ending in -mos right next to nos in certain commands, then it becomes harder to say so you remove the s from mos:
¡Vamos! = Let's go!
¡Vámonos! = Let's leave! (vamos + nos = vámonos)
Sentémonos = Let's sit (ourselves) down
The above is from the verb sentarse = to sit oneself down. You may hear "siéntese, por favor" = "please sit (yourself) down".

To clarify a few things:

The direct object is used when you directly mean the person or thing e.g. I'm sending HIM to Spain means that you're sending that person but if you said I'm sending a package TO HIM then you don't directly mean that person. The direct object there is the package. It also doesn't always mean TO HIM / HER etc. since you can buy something FROM someone.
The prepositional form is used with prepositions such as para, de, a, por etc.
You use nosotras / vosotras when you're referring to a number of females.
Also don't be surprised if someone uses the word 'le' instead of 'lo' etc. because in different countries and sometimes different people in the same country may use the indirect and direct objects in another way e.g. someone may say 'le vi' instead of 'lo vi'. Just don't worry about it.

If you wish to learn about odd uses of these pronouns, then see this article but it is a little advanced: Strange object / subject / indirect object positions and the Personal A

[ENGLISH]Have you found an error or do you want to add more information to these pages?
You can contact me at the bottom of the home page.

[ESPAÑOL] ¿Ha encontrado un error o tiene información adicional?
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