Vos vs Vosotros and Vosotras: Argentina and Spain Compared

I recently had a conversation with someone who’d learned Spanish in Spain and was quite comfortable with vosotros and vosotras. I was telling them about arriving in Argentina and realising, within days, that I had to learn vos.

I already spoke Spanish. But I wanted to fit in, and that meant understanding the forms people used around me and getting them into my own speech. Knowing what tenés meant was the first step. Asking ¿Tenés tiempo? without mentally translating from ¿Tienes tiempo? took practice.

My existing Spanish got me through conversations. Speaking more like the people I met required a change of habits, especially the conjugations and their stress.

The names can make the relationship confusing: vos means “you” for one person in Argentina; vosotros and vosotras mean “you” for a group in much of Spain. They have a historical connection, but you can’t swap them in a sentence.

Vos vs vosotros and vosotras at a glance

Form	Who you’re addressing	Everyday example
vos	One person, familiar speech in Argentina	¿Vos querés venir? — Do you want to come?
vosotros	A male or mixed group, familiar speech in much of Spain	¿Vosotros queréis venir? — Do you all want to come?
vosotras	An all-female group, same setting	¿Vosotras queréis venir? — Do you all want to come?
ustedes	A group in Argentina, familiar or formal; respectful plural in much of Spain	¿Ustedes quieren venir? — Do you all want to come?

The RAE’s entry on vosotros and vosotras describes their familiar plural use. The two forms have identical verb conjugations. The gender ending changes the pronoun: vosotras sois and vosotros sois.

Spain has regional variation. In the Canary Islands and parts of Andalusia, people use ustedes in familiar plural speech too. The Spain examples below describe the common tú/vosotros system.

Where vos fits in Argentina

In Argentina, vos normally fills the familiar singular role that tú fills in Spain. The RAE’s entry on vos describes it as a form of closeness and familiarity, contrasted with usted.

That familiarity can extend to everyday encounters with people you’ve just met. Usted still lets you express respect or distance, depending on the relationship and setting. Follow the other person’s lead when you’re unsure.

For a group, Argentina uses ustedes: ¿Quieren venir? That works whether you’re addressing friends or speaking more formally. There’s no feminine version of vos. You use it with a person of any gender.

Our broader guide to Argentinian Spanish covers pronunciation and vocabulary beyond these pronouns. This article focuses on the common Rioplatense patterns, especially those you’ll hear in Buenos Aires.

Present tense: hablás, comés, vivís

For regular verbs, compare the endings directly. These forms follow the RAE’s conjugation tables.

Infinitive	Tú: one person	Vos: one person	Vosotros/as: group
hablar — speak	hablas	hablás	habláis
comer — eat	comes	comés	coméis
vivir — live	vives	vivís	vivís
tener — have	tienes	tenés	tenéis
querer — want	quieres	querés	queréis
poder — can	puedes	podés	podéis
ser — be	eres	sos	sois
ir — go	vas	vas	vais

With vos, replace the infinitive ending with -ás, -és or -ís: hablar → hablás, comer → comés, vivir → vivís. Many verbs with a stem change under tú lose it here: tienes → tenés, puedes → podés. Learn sos and vas separately.

Pay attention to stress. Say ha-BLÁS, co-MÉS and vi-VÍS. In habláis and coméis, keep the ending’s “i” sound. Vos vivís and vosotros vivís happen to share the same verb form.

Spanish often drops the subject pronoun. You’ll hear ¿Querés un café? rather than ¿Vos querés un café? Adding vos can emphasise who you’re asking.

Commands: vení, decime and sentate

The RAE’s voseo entry explains the affirmative command forms and their connection to older plural commands. In Argentina, vení tells one person to come; in Spain, venid addresses a familiar group.

Meaning	Tú	Vos	Vosotros/as
Come	ven	vení	venid
Speak	habla	hablá	hablad
Eat	come	comé	comed
Tell me	dime	decime	decidme
Sit down	siéntate	sentate	sentaos
Go	ve	andá	id

Attached pronouns keep the command’s stress in place: de-CI-me, sen-TA-te. Normal spelling rules explain why decí has an accent but decime doesn’t.

Negative commands use the subjunctive. No te preocupes (“Don’t worry”) is a good starting point for Argentina. You’ll also hear voseo variants such as no te preocupés; usage varies. In Spain, addressing a group gives you no os preocupéis.

What changes with te, os and “your”?

With Argentinian vos, you still use te, tu and tuyo. The RAE’s voseo entry documents this combination. Spain’s plural forms use os and vuestro, with possessive endings agreeing with the thing owned.

Meaning	Argentina: one person	Spain: familiar group
What’s your name / what are your names?	¿Cómo te llamás?	¿Cómo os llamáis?
I’ll call you later	Te llamo después	Os llamo después
Is this your house?	¿Esta es tu casa?	¿Esta es vuestra casa?
I’m coming with you	Voy con vos	Voy con vosotros/vosotras

For Argentina, learn con vos (“with you”) and para vos (“for you”). For a group there, use con ustedes and para ustedes.

You don’t need to relearn every tense

Much of what you know from tú carries across: vos hablaste (“you spoke”), vos tenías (“you had”), vos podrías (“you could”) and vos vas a venir (“you’re going to come”). Don’t add a final s to standard past forms: write hablaste.

For a group in Spain, the corresponding forms include hablasteis, teníais, podríais and vais a venir.

Everyday phrases to practise

These examples give the forms something to do. The Spain column addresses a group; the Argentina column addresses one person.

Meaning / setting	Spain: familiar group	Argentina: familiar singular
How are you?	¿Qué tal estáis?	¿Cómo andás?
Where are you from?	¿De dónde sois?	¿De dónde sos?
Do you feel like getting coffee?	¿Os apetece tomar un café?	¿Tenés ganas de tomar un café?
Are you coming with us?	¿Venís con nosotros?	¿Venís con nosotros?
Tell me what you think	Decidme qué os parece	Decime qué te parece
Sit here	Sentaos aquí	Sentate acá
Shall we meet tomorrow? / Does tomorrow work?	¿Quedamos mañana?	¿Te va bien mañana?

For an all-female group in Spain, you might ask ¿Vosotras también venís? (“Are you coming too?”). A reply from the group could be Nosotras también vamos. The speaker’s gender doesn’t determine whether they say vosotras; the people they’re addressing do.

In Argentina, che can attract someone’s attention: Che, ¿vos venís mañana? (“Hey, are you coming tomorrow?”). You can also answer a greeting with Bien, ¿y vos? (“Good, and you?”). Start with ordinary phrases like these rather than forcing slang into every sentence.

How vos and vosotros are historically related

The resemblance has a real history. In Hebé M. Gassó’s account of Rioplatense voseo, vos comes from Latin’s plural “you” and later also addressed a single person respectfully. Adding otros helped establish an explicitly plural vosotros.

Over time, regions developed different systems of address. Modern Argentinian vos became familiar singular, while much of Spain kept tú for familiar singular and vosotros for familiar plural.

The verb endings preserve that connection: compare habláis with hablás and comed with comé. That’s why the forms look related even though they address different numbers of people today.

What I’d practise before arriving

For Argentina, I’d practise questions I’d actually ask: ¿Tenés tiempo?, ¿Querés venir? and ¿Me podés ayudar? Say them aloud until the final stress feels normal. Then practise short replies: ¿Y vos?, con vos and para vos.

For Spain, I’d rehearse speaking to two friends together: ¿Qué queréis hacer?, ¿Os apetece un café? and ¿Venís mañana? Switching between one person and a group is the habit to build.

Ask a local teacher to check those sentences in conversation. Getting a few daily exchanges into your mouth will do more for your confidence than memorising a conjugation table you never say aloud.