All Spanish Pronouns at a Glance

Spanish has more pronoun categories than English, and each category has its own paradigm. This page is a single-stop reference: every subject, object, reflexive, prepositional, relative, and interrogative pronoun, with usage notes and cross-links to the detailed sub-pages. Use it to get the full map, then dive into the individual pages for drills and edge cases.

Why this matters: pronouns aren't just shortcuts. In Spanish they're load-bearing. Because the language freely drops subject pronouns, relies heavily on object pronouns for concision, and uses the subjunctive in many relative-clause constructions, getting the pronoun system wrong makes you sound awkward even when your verbs are perfect. This page lays out every category in one place so you can see how they interlock.

Subject pronouns

These replace the subject of the sentence. Spanish very often omits them — the verb ending already tells you who's doing the action — so you use subject pronouns mostly for emphasis, contrast, or clarification.

A few important points for Latin American Spanish:

• Vosotros is not used in Latin America — ustedes covers both formal and informal "you all."
• Vos replaces tú in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, most of Central America, and parts of Colombia and Venezuela. It has its own verb forms (vos hablás, vos tenés). See voseo.
• Usted is a singular formal pronoun but grammatically takes third-person verb forms (usted habla, not usted hablas).

For more, see subject pronouns overview, tú vs usted, and vosotros vs ustedes.

Direct object pronouns

These replace the direct object — the thing the verb acts on. They answer what? or whom?

Notice that lo and la agree with the gender of the thing being replaced. Lo is also used for ideas, whole clauses, or something unspecified ("I know it," lo sé).

For the full picture, see direct object pronouns, direct object placement, and lo / la variation.

Indirect object pronouns

These replace the indirect object — the person who benefits from or is affected by the action. They answer to whom? or for whom?

Notice that first and second person are identical to the direct object forms. Only the third person is different: le / les for indirect, lo / la / los / las for direct.

Spanish almost always uses an indirect object pronoun even when the noun is also mentioned — this is called redundant or doubled indirect object, and it's standard.

For more see indirect object pronouns, indirect object doubling, and gustar-type verbs.

Combined object pronouns

When a sentence has both a direct and an indirect object pronoun, they appear together in a fixed order: indirect before direct.

A critical rule: when both pronouns start with l- (that is, le lo, le la, les lo, les las, etc.), the indirect object becomes se. So le lo → se lo.

This is a pure phonetic rule — Spanish avoids the stacked "l-l" sound. See le to se and combined order for details.

Reflexive pronouns

Reflexive pronouns indicate that the subject and the object are the same person. They are required with reflexive verbs and with any verb where the action reflects back on the doer.

Notice that first and second person reflexive pronouns are identical to the direct/indirect forms. Only se is uniquely reflexive (or reciprocal, or impersonal — se has many jobs).

For the full story, see reflexive overview, reflexive verbs, reciprocal, and reflexive meaning change.

Prepositional pronouns

After a preposition (de, con, para, sin, etc.), Spanish uses a special set of pronouns. Most of them look like subject pronouns — but the first and second person singular are different.

Note the accent on mí (distinguishing it from the possessive mi). Ti has no accent — there is nothing to distinguish it from.

With con, the first and second person have special fused forms:

A handful of prepositions don't use this set — entre, excepto, incluso, menos, salvo, and según take subject pronouns instead: entre tú y yo, según yo. See prepositional pronouns and conmigo / contigo.

Relative pronouns

Relative pronouns connect a clause to the noun it describes. English uses "that," "which," "who," and sometimes nothing. Spanish uses several forms depending on context.

A key Spanish rule: unlike English, you cannot drop the relative pronoun. English can say "the book I read," but Spanish must say el libro *que leí*.

For details see relative que, relative quien, relative el que / el cual, relative lo que, relative cuyo, and relative donde.

Interrogative pronouns

Question words used as pronouns (standing in for a noun). All interrogatives carry a written accent to distinguish them from their relative cousins.

The qué vs cuál distinction trips up English speakers. Rule of thumb: cuál asks you to pick from a known or implied set ("which one?"), while qué asks for a definition or identification ("what is X?"). Before ser + noun, use cuál unless you literally want a definition.

See qué vs cuál, interrogative quién, and interrogative cuánto.

Possessive pronouns

These aren't in the original list above because they're sometimes classified as adjectives, but they behave as pronouns when they replace a noun. They agree in gender and number with the thing being possessed (not with the possessor).

Because suyo can mean his, hers, yours (formal), or theirs, Spanish often replaces it with a prepositional phrase for clarity: el de él, el de ella, el de ustedes, el de ellos. This gets around the ambiguity without losing the "whose" information.

Demonstrative pronouns

Demonstratives (este, ese, aquel) can act as pronouns, replacing a noun directly. They used to carry an accent to distinguish them from demonstrative adjectives (éste vs este), but since 2010 the RAE considers the accent optional and most modern writing drops it.

The neuter forms (esto, eso, aquello) refer to ideas, situations, or unspecified things — not to any particular grammatical-gender noun. "What is this thing / situation / idea?"

Placement rules

Where do object and reflexive pronouns go? Spanish has one of the most regular systems in Europe, but there are three cases to learn.

Both options in those last two rows are equally correct. The attached version is slightly more common in writing, the pre-verb version in speech.

When you attach a pronoun, you often need to add a written accent on the verb to preserve the original stress. See combined with commands and combined with infinitives.

The dropped-subject habit

One last thing to know: Spanish drops subject pronouns almost all the time. Because the verb ending already tells you who the subject is (hablo = I speak, hablas = you speak), repeating the pronoun feels redundant — even slightly emphatic.

The emphatic versions aren't wrong, but they sound like you're making a contrast ("I speak Spanish, but they don't") or a clarification ("she, not him"). Use the dropped version as your default.

This three-verb sentence has no pronoun at all, because the verb endings tell you it's the same first-person subject throughout. See pronoun omission.

Indefinite pronouns

This is a quick appendix for completeness. Indefinite pronouns refer to vague or unspecified people or things. They include:

Spanish allows (and usually prefers) double negatives: no... nadie, no... nada. If the negative word comes after the verb, you need no before the verb.

Leísmo, loísmo, laísmo

Some Spanish-speaking regions use the "wrong" pronoun for direct objects referring to people — they use the indirect object le where lo would be standard (this is leísmo), or less commonly the reverse (loísmo, laísmo).

• Leísmo (using le for male direct objects): accepted by the Real Academia in the singular for male persons. Common in much of Spain. Rare in Latin America.
• Loísmo (using lo for indirect objects): non-standard everywhere.
• Laísmo (using la for feminine indirect objects): non-standard, mostly found in central Spain.

For Latin American Spanish, stick with lo / la for direct objects and le / les for indirect objects. That's the pattern this guide follows throughout.

How to know which pronoun to use

Pulling it all together: when you need a pronoun, ask yourself three quick questions.

1. Does it stand for the subject of the verb? Probably you can drop it — Spanish almost always does. If you keep it, you want a subject pronoun (yo, tú, él...).
2. Is the verb acting on something? Ask what? — if the noun you'd put there is a direct object, use a direct object pronoun (lo, la, me, te...). Ask to whom? — if it's a beneficiary, use an indirect object pronoun (le, les, me, te...).
3. Does the sentence have a preposition like de, con, para? Then you want a prepositional pronoun (mí, ti, él, ella...), with the special fused forms conmigo, contigo after con.

For clauses, the logic is similar: relative pronouns (que, quien, cuyo...) connect a clause to its noun, and interrogative pronouns (qué, cuál, quién, cuánto) introduce questions. They carry a written accent to distinguish them from the relatives.

That short sentence contains four pronoun types: ella (prepositional, object of a), le (indirect object, redundant with a ella), que (relative), and implicit yo (dropped subject). Spanish compresses a lot into a handful of pronoun slots.

Summary grid: all pronoun categories

One final table pulling everything together. Read across a row to see the same "person" in each pronoun category.

Notice the patterns:

• First and second person singular are the only forms where subject and prepositional pronouns differ (yo/mí, tú/ti).
• DO and IO are identical in first and second person. Only third person splits (lo/la vs le).
• Reflexive pronouns reuse the DO/IO forms except for the third person, which has its own se.

Where to go next

The pages that cover each category in depth:

• Subject: overview, emphasis and contrast, omission, tú vs usted, voseo.
• Direct object: overview, placement, with commands, with infinitives, lo/la variation.
• Indirect object: overview, placement, doubling, dative of interest, gustar-type verbs.
• Combined: order, le → se, with commands, with infinitives.
• Reflexive: overview, reflexive verbs, reciprocal, inherently reflexive, meaning change.
• Prepositional: overview, conmigo/contigo, emphatic a mí.
• Relative: que, quien, el que/el cual, lo que, cuyo, donde.
• Interrogative: qué vs cuál, quién, cuánto.