Voseo is the use of the pronoun vos instead of (or alongside) tú for informal second-person singular address. It is one of the most visible features of regional variation in Latin American Spanish, and it affects pronouns, verb conjugation, and commands.
Where vos is used, it is not a quirk or a slang choice — it is the standard informal form, taught in schools, used on television, and printed in newspapers. This page maps out the main voseo regions.
The Rioplatense Heartland
The strongest and most prestigious voseo is in Argentina and Uruguay, in the region around the Río de la Plata. Here vos has completely displaced tú: you will essentially never hear a native speaker say tú in everyday conversation. Children grow up saying vos, schoolteachers teach with vos, and textbooks print vos conjugations.
Paraguay also uses vos as its normal informal pronoun, though Guaraní is the other big everyday language there.
¿Vos querés un café?
Do you want a coffee? (Argentina / Uruguay)
Che, vos sabés que te quiero.
Hey, you know I love you. (Rioplatense)
Central America
Voseo is widespread in much of Central America, though its social status varies from country to country.
Nicaragua uses vos almost universally in informal speech, much like Argentina.
Costa Rica uses vos widely, along with usted used in an unusually informal way — Costa Ricans often say usted to close friends and even pets.
El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala all have strong voseo traditions, though in some formal contexts tú may appear, especially in writing or to sound more "international."
Panama is mixed but leans toward tú.
¿Vos de dónde sos, mae?
Where are you from, buddy? (Costa Rica)
Vos tenés razón.
You're right. (Central American voseo)
Chile
Chile is its own case. Educated Chileans often use tú in writing and careful speech, but in casual conversation they use a distinctively Chilean set of verb forms — technically a kind of voseo, but usually with the pronoun tú rather than vos.
The conjugation uses endings like -ái, -ís, -ís (for -ar, -er, -ir): tú hablái, tú comís, tú vivís. Saying vos with these endings is possible but sounds rougher or more familiar. This mix is sometimes called voseo chileno.
Other Voseo Areas
Smaller pockets of voseo exist elsewhere:
- Colombia: the Paisa region (Medellín, Antioquia) and parts of the Cauca valley use vos in informal speech.
- Venezuela: the state of Zulia (around Maracaibo) has strong voseo; the rest of the country uses tú.
- Bolivia: the eastern lowlands (Santa Cruz) use vos; the Andean highlands use tú.
- Ecuador: parts of the Sierra and coastal regions use vos in informal situations.
Places Where Vos Is Not Used
In Mexico, the entire Caribbean (Cuba, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico), most of Colombia, most of Venezuela, and most of Peru, the informal singular is tú. Using vos in these regions would sound foreign or incorrect.
| Region | Informal singular |
|---|---|
| Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay | vos |
| Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala | vos (dominant) |
| Chile | tú (with voseo endings) |
| Mexico, Caribbean, Peru, most of Colombia | tú |
For how vos actually conjugates, continue to Voseo: Present Tense.
Related Topics
- Latin American Spanish OverviewA1 — How Latin American Spanish is unified on some features and split into many regional varieties on others.
- Voseo: Present TenseB1 — How to conjugate regular -ar, -er, and -ir verbs with vos in the present indicative.
- Voseo: CommandsB2 — How to form affirmative and negative commands with vos, including the small set of irregulars.
- Voseo: Other TensesB2 — Why most tenses don't need special vos forms — and the Chilean exception that does.