I, you, she, we, he, they, it in Spanish

There are those little lines above the letter again.

Why are there two words for we, you and they?

TreeLover

There are those little lines above the letter again.

Why are there two words for we, you and they?

I think the words end with "o" son para males while others are for females

we = Nosotros / Nosotras

you = vosotros / vosotras

they = ellos / ellas

The two different words for we, you and they is because there is a different form for men and women. The first word is the masculine and the second one the femenine.

As for the little lines above the letter is what we called: 'TILDE'. It's quite difficult to explain what tildes are in a few words. Looking at the 'tildes' you can see where the main stress is in a word, for example the word ÁRBOL is pronounce with the stress or emphasis in  the first syllable.

That doesn't mean that all words have got a 'tilde'.

There are 3 kind of words in Spanish:

-AGUDAS: the stress is in the last syllable. They have a tilde if they end in vowel, -s or -n. : jugó, irás, cajón,

-LLANAS or GRAVES: the stress is in the second to last syllable. They have a tilde if the don't end in vowel, -s or -n.: lápiz, casa

-EXDRÚJULAS: the stress is in the third to last syllable and they always have 'tilde':  exdrújula, semáforo

So, I am all right with the first part. The TILDE (those little lines) give emphasis on the part of the word. Like in English when we usually (though I think not always) put emphasis on the first syllable of the word.

The last part with the 3 kinds of words in Spanish has got my head spinning a bit. I see it's talking about when to put stress on the words. The problem is knowing which words go into which category.

Treelover,

I hope this clears things up for you. I was never told the lines were tildes. They are accent marks. I have gotten into my spanish book and am posting what they have in the book for you to use as a guide. Please note the book is titled "Plazas" and it is the second edition. I have also "Destinos" but a friend is borrowing them at the moment.

Word stress and written accents       (this is on the back flap of the book!!!)
In Spanish the natural stress of words most commonly occurs on the second-to-the-last syllable, and the last syllable--and more commonly on the former. Words that deviate from the norm must carry a written accent mark, known as the acento otrográfico, to indicate where the stress of the word falls. The following three principles describe where word stress occurs and when a written accent is necessary:

1.  The pronunciation of words that end in a vowel or in the consonants n or s are stressed on the second-to-the-last syllable:

     problema..pro-ble-ema
     resumen..re-su-men
     trabajo..tra-ba-jo
     bailas..bai-las

2. Words that end in a consonant other than n or s are stressed on the last syllable:

    bailar..bai-lar
    normal..nor-mal
    similar..si-mi-lar
    reloj..re-loj

3. If a word does not follow one of the first principles described above, the word is an exception to the norm and must carry a        written accent to indicate where the stress falls:

   sofá
   árbol
   comerás
   menú
   función

Note: The tildes are over the letter n and only the letter n and look like a "squiggley" line. It looks like this ñ or this Ñ. This is not to be confused with accent marks.

Hope this clears up the confusion that can happen when learning the spanish language.

Some remarks:

1) Some people call the "acento ortógrafico" "tilde".

2) "You" in some countries is translated as "vos", not "tú" (when it is informal). There are some posts about this. Look, for instance, at: [link]

3) "You" may be "usted", when it is formal, in order to show respect. Look at: [link]

4) There are also the "palabras esdrújulas". For instance:

ómnibus (óm-ni-bus); águila (á-gui-la). The mark goes on the third syllabe.

Hope this helps a little bit.

Cheers,

Sextus

In some cases the noun "it" can be "ella, él" look at this examples:

Toma esa llave y abre la puerta con ella  / Take that key and open the door with it

Estaba clavando con este martillo y me golpeé con él / I was nailing  with this hammer and I hit myself with it

*I'm not pretty sure about into the English the translations I made, so if they need some correction please just do it.