'vos' vs 'tú' usage by country

Question

I lived for a while in Bolivia, and I noticed some people used "vos" instead of "tú" as the second person familiar singular pronoun. Which countries use "vos" instead of "tú", and are there any that use it nearly exclusively?

Answer 1

According to Wikipedia's article on voseo, the geographical distribution can be split into three categories:

Countries where voseo is predominant:

• Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica

Countries where both forms are used:

• Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Venezuela

Countries where vos is practically out of use:

• Spain, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Peru, Cuba

However, it is difficult to generalize based on country, and there are often differences from one region to the next. See the Wikipedia article for more details.

Answer 2

I think that also in some countries using 'vos' is disrespectful, mainly with family.
It's more acceptable to use 'tú'.

Answer 3

Spanish learners are often taken aback, not surprisingly, by the use of vos or "voseo" amongst Spanish speakers because we don't really learn about it in school in the U.S. because our neighbors in México don't really use it much except in a few areas down in Chiapas and Tabasco (*). We Spanish learners are so comfortable with "tú" and can recognize and use usted, but vos can seem like even more of a foreign language, as does it even to some native Spanish speakers.

So then, when traveling we hear people using "vos" and we realize, "hey, this isn't what I learned in School!!!" (Learning about voseo for me was as surprising as the day my teacher introduced the subjunctive in high school.) ¡¿Qué?!

Here is a really great article and avery thorough chart from la Real Academia Española that really helped me to better understand voseo and where and how it is used:

FORMAS DEL VOSEO VERBAL POR PAÍSES

Here are some of the interesting tidbits the page touches on about voseo en different parts of Latin America:

"[En Bolivia S]e usa el tuteo en el habla culta. El voseo es propio de hablantes de zonas rurales y de las clases populares urbanas" (*).

"En Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua y Costa Rica, el voseo es un fenómeno general en todas las clases sociales"(*).

"En Chile el voseo es un fenómeno general en el habla familiar y coloquial, sobre todo entre los jóvenes, mientras que en los registros formales se tutea" (*).

"El Perú es un país tuteante, aunque en el norte y en el sur —zonas limítrofes con áreas de voseo— el uso de tú coexiste con el de vos" (*).

"En la Argentina, el Paraguay y el Uruguay las formas de voseo son aceptadas sin reserva por todas las clases sociales" (*).

*http://lema.rae.es/dpd/?key=voseo

Answer 4

To add to other answers: bear in mind that, even in regions where "voseo" is predominant (as Argentina), "tú" is readily recognized and accepted as "neutral Spanish", so you won't have any problem if you use it. For example: young people in Buenos Aires would never use "tú" in normal speak, however they will find it natural in poetry, songs lyrics, "fansubs" (movies subtitles), movies dubs, etc.

Answer 5

It is extremely important, when talking about word usage in Spanish, to avoid the general thought that every country has an homogeneous way to do so.

For example, here in Chile we use tú as the normal way, but, in some cases you want to sound a bit rude, and then use vos, pronounced like voh:

Y vos, qué te crees que eres? (And who do you think you are?)

At least, this is the use in central Chile.

I've visited central Argentina several times, and there they have a very widespread use of vos, along with their own way to conjugate the verbs in the second person singular (what lies beyond the scope of this question).

Answer 6

There is no rule, and it is one of the most beautiful differences in the Spash language.

• Spain: Tu/Usted (Formal)
• Mexico: Usted/Tu
• Central America: Usted/Tu
• South of South America: Vos

Answer 7

There is no answer to this, because in some counties like Argentina, some people use "vos" and some people use "tu".

Answer 8

Generally North/Central America and Caribe countries like Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Honduras, Cuba use Tu. South America countries like Bolivia,Colombia,Chile,Venezuela,Argentina use vos.