Most of you reading this article are probably native English speakers. So, you know that while we speak, read and write in English, we are spoiled. When we learn Spanish a problem can arise: where are the pronouns? Pronouns are our indicators of who is speaking. These pronouns are: “I”, “you”, “he”, “she”, “it”, “we” and “they”.
1. Look up the names of the people being referenced. To find them, you must study a list of names of people in Spanish. You can find a lot of help to do this on the Internet. Generally, most male names end in “o” or “os”, such as: “Marcos”, “Pedro”, “Mateo”, “Alejandro”. Female names usually end in “a”, such as: “María”, “Leticia”, “Lola”, “Elisa”.
2. Spanish verbs are somewhat different than English verbs because they involve more “conjugation.” In other words, there are different endings on the verbs that indicate who is performing the action. For example, in English we say: I speak, you speak, he/she speaks, we speak, they speak. But in Spanish, “hablo” is “I speak”; “tú hablas” is “tú hablas”; he/she speaks; he/she speaks; we speak: we speak; they speak: They/They speak. Unfortunately, Spanish does not require the use of personal pronouns, as we do in English. So “I speak” can simply be “I speak”; “You speak” can be “you speak” and “He/She/You speak” can be “speak”.
3. So “talk” can mean “he talks”, “she talks”, “he talks”, or “you talk”. So how do you know who “speaks” refers to? The first indicator I pointed out may be names. Another way is to continue reading the paragraphs before and after that sentence with the verb you see just to indicate who is performing the action. In other words, you need to know how to read and translate Spanish very well, so that you understand the situation and the descriptions that are being developed to determine which of the characters is speaking.
4. Always keep a record of each line of dialogue. If you are reading a conversation between two people. The lines of each character jump between the ones the other person is speaking. If you still get confused, go back from where you started reading and look up nouns or pronouns. As you read, underline and mark who said what and to whom.
5. Look for adjectives that describe one or more people. Most of the adjectives can be useful to distinguish between men and women using the last letters of the word: -o, -a, -os, -as. For example, take the word “Good” or “Good”.
So, a man is “Good”: A woman is “Good”.
Several men are “Good”: Several women are “Good”.
6. You can also use indirect objects. When one person talks to another person, indirect objects become useful. If a person says: “I give him this book”: “I give the book to him”. (‘To him’, refers to “him”, with “him”. “I am giving the book to her”: “I give the book to her.” (‘To her’, refers to “he “) The plural of both is “the”:
“I give them the book.”: “I give them the book.” “to them” refers to men and women. “To them” refers only to women.
7. Analyze the person’s way of speaking and look for clues that determine if the speaker is male or female. When you read or listen to a conversation in any language, men and women often speak differently in tone and topic. A man could speak with more authority and talk about items that relate to men. Women tend to speak more delicately and about topics that are interesting to them.
Pronouns in English are easier to recognize than in Spanish. Of course, understanding Spanish pronouns requires much more study and reading. There are many online resources to discover.