People use usted instead of tú to express their politeness to the listener. Then the verb form changes from the 2nd to the 3rd person singular even though the 2nd person singular is correct grammatically. What is the historical or cultural background for this?
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This is not restricted to Spanish, as such I think that this question is better answered on Lingusitics.SE. Here is a similar question (but about Portuguese)– Peter MCommented Sep 21 at 14:52
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Yes, verb declensions in Spanish have different endings for different persons. If you use Usted, the second person singular is wrong as an ending. Grammatically, you have to use the correct verb ending.– LambieCommented Sep 22 at 13:44
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And even there is more formal and archaic version: using 2nd personal singular: "Perdonad si os molesto". But nowadays it is used only in movies of queens.– somenxavierCommented Nov 18 at 12:19
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2 Answers
"Usted" is a shortened form of the phrase "vuestra merced". Vuestra merced used the 3rd person singular, since it refers to a quality of the person addressed rather than to the person addressed as such. The verb form passed onto the shortened form of "usted".
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1We do the same in English in archaic usages like "Does Your Grace want to visit the abbey tomorrow?" rather than "Do you want to visit the abbey tomorrow.– mdeweyCommented Sep 22 at 10:47
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it's more of a grammarly adopted thing culturally, so in texts and colloquial conversations might helped to change it, it differs country to country tho its "technical" name is the use of "tuteo" y "voseo", for example:
in Colombia we use: tú : for really close connections (partner, family and friends) or when we are flirting. vos: for more formal connections but not in a serious way, like when you're not close enough to a person but you still are in an unformal situation like in lunch time with workmates. (in most regions of the country tho, some other use words like "sumercé" which is a colloquial way for saying "a su mercéd" which is a very old word date from Spanish colonies era its abbreviation is ud.) usted: this is the most "elegant" and formal way to refer to another person, this is used more in new situations or properly formal situation (btw this word also comes from "vuestra mercéd" an old Spanish way to refer someone, as mentioned earlier), and its abbreviation is vd, in plural "ustedes" is vds.
there's a youtube channel that specializes on this kind of grammar things in all ways of spanish, european, and american spanish, sometimes also equatorean guinea's spanish, it's called Linguriosa if you want to check it out. link to the video
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That does not answer the question of why a 3rd person form of the verb is used rather than a second.– mdeweyCommented Sep 22 at 10:45
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it's more of a grammarly adopted thing culturally,?? – You might want to use capital letters for languages and properly punctuate your sentences and use correct spelling. Like though for tho. We are not text messaging here.– LambieCommented Sep 27 at 16:44