Learn Spanish (Latin America): Hola, tú vives en Colombia.

You use tú when talking to a friend, a family member, someone your own age, or a child. It is the informal "you." If you were speaking to someone older, a stranger, or someone in authority, you would use the formal usted instead.

If I wanted to say this formally with usted, does the word vives change?

Yes! Verbs change their endings depending on who is doing the action. For tú, the verb ends in an "s": tú vives. If you switch to the formal usted, you drop that "s", making it: usted vive en Colombia.

Why does tú have an accent mark over the "u"?

The accent mark helps tell apart the word tú (meaning "you") from the word tu (meaning "your"). For example, tú vives means "you live", but tu casa means "your house". They sound exactly the same when spoken, so Spanish uses an accent mark in writing to show which meaning is intended.

Do I have to include the word tú in this sentence?

No, you can just say Hola, vives en Colombia. In Spanish, the verb ending (the -s in vives) already tells us that "you" are the one living. Including tú here just adds a little extra emphasis or makes the sentence feel more personal.