Learn Spanish (Spain): Ustedes están cansados, pero el hotel es muy bonito. - You are tired, but the hotel is very beautiful.

In Spain, vosotros is the informal way to say 'you all' to a group of friends. Ustedes is the formal plural 'you.' A hotel worker would use ustedes to show respect to a group of new guests.

Why does ustedes use the verb están? Isn't that for 'they'?

Yes, están is the 'they' form of the verb estar. Even though ustedes means 'you all', it acts as a formal title. Because of this rule of politeness, it always takes the third-person plural ('they') verb endings.

Would the word cansados change if the guests are all women?

Yes! Describing words must match the people they describe. If you are speaking formally to a group of women, it becomes Ustedes están cansadas. If it is a mixed group of men and women, you use the masculine plural cansados.

Why do we use están for being tired but es for the hotel?

This sentence shows the difference between the two Spanish verbs for 'to be'. We use están (from the verb estar) for the guests because being tired is a temporary state. We use es (from the verb ser) for the hotel because being beautiful is a core characteristic of the building.