hablás/tenés/querés/podés/sos

Voseo Present Tense

Level 1

Vos is a familiar singular “you” in many parts of Latin America. Present forms and their combinations with pronouns vary by region.

How It Works

Present Indicative Voseo
The pattern common in the Río de la Plata and much of Central America uses -ás, -és, -ís: hablar → hablás, comer → comés, vivir → vivís. It is ordinary Spanish, not a mistake.

Stems and Special Forms
The e→ie and o→ue diphthongs of tú quieres and tú puedes do not occur in vos querés and vos podés. Do not generalize this into “no stem changes”: decir gives decís. Learn special forms such as sos, vas, has, das, ves. Monosyllabic das and ves have no written accent; the regular ending shortcut is not a rule to accent every vos form.

Pronouns
Use te as the object or reflexive pronoun and tu/tuyo as possessives: Vos te lavás las manos; este es tu libro. Tu is a possessive, not an object pronoun. After a preposition, familiar voseo uses vos: para vos, con vos. Its plural address form is ustedes.

Regional Variation
Argentina widely uses vos with these forms. Uruguay includes vos, tú and combinations such as tú tenés, with regional and social variation. Other areas have different voseo endings, including parts of Chile. The subject pronoun can be omitted; verbal voseo does not require an explicit vos.

Other Tenses and Commands
Forms such as vos hablabas and vos hablarías match tú forms, but check the local pattern for each tense. Affirmative commands commonly end in a stressed vowel: hablá, comé, viví; ir commonly uses andá. Do not derive all commands merely by deleting -s from the present: sos does not become so. Present subjunctive and negative commands vary regionally, including hables/hablés.

Examples (5)

  1. ¿De dónde sos?

    Where are you from?

    Word by Word: From where are you?

    Uses 'sos', the highly irregular vos form of the verb 'ser'.

  2. Vos siempre querés tener razón.

    You always want to be right.

    Word by Word: You always want to have reason.

    Notice how 'querer' becomes 'querés' without the e→ie stem change that 'tú' uses (quieres).

  3. Si querés, podés venir esta noche.

    If you want, you can come tonight.

    Word by Word: If you want, you can come this night.

    Both 'querer' and 'poder' keep their original stem vowels (e and o) because the stress is on the final accented syllable.

  4. ¿Vos hablás español?

    Do you speak Spanish?

    Word by Word: You speak Spanish?

    A regular -ar verb. Drop the -r from 'hablar' and add -s with an accent on the 'a'.

  5. ¿Dónde vivís ahora?

    Where do you live now?

    Word by Word: Where live now?

    A regular -ir verb. Drop the -r from 'vivir' and add -s with an accent on the 'i'.

Common Mistakes

  • Applying 'tú' stem changes to 'vos' conjugations.

    Vos quierés un café.
    Vos querés un café.

    In the present indicative pattern taught here, querer gives querés, without the ie diphthong. This does not imply that every verb has an unchanged stem; decir gives decís.

  • Using the Spain 'vosotros' pronoun 'os' with 'vos'.

    Vos os llamás Ana.
    Vos te llamás Ana.

    Familiar singular vos takes reflexive/object te, not vosotros os. It also uses possessives tu/tuyo, but tu is not an object pronoun.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

hablás/tenés/querés/podés/sosLevel 1Voseo Present Tense

Learn This First

To understand voseo present tense forms, you first need to be familiar with the pronoun 'vos' and the standard present tense conjugation patterns for -ar, -er, and -ir verbs. Voseo forms are unique because they shift the stress to the final syllable and typically eliminate the stem-changing (diphthongization) rules found in the 'tú' form.