Personal Pronouns

Personal Pronouns (Pronomes Personais)

There are two types of personal pronouns in Galician: the first are stressed forms, the second are unstressed forms. The latter only occur with verbs.

Stressed forms (Pronomes tónicos)

Subjective forms

Singular Plural

m f m f

First person eu I you nós / nosoutros we nós / nosoutras we

Second person ti you vós / vosoutros you vós / vosoutras you

Third person el he ela she eles they elas they

They normally function as subject.

There is no neutral third person pronoun, or a pronoun that acquires a special form when it refers to an inanimate entity.

The so-called exclusive forms nosoutros and vosoutros are used when the speaker wants to refer to a closed group of people that excludes some elements from the general reference; the inclusive forms nós and vós represent a wider group that is not subdivided:

Todos nós somos de Muros, pero só nosoutros tres nacemos na vila.

We are all from Muros, but only we three were born in the village.

The pronoun vostede is used as second person courtesy form. With this form, the verb appears in third person:

Vostede sabe o meu nome.

You know my name.

Vostedes non están convidados ó casamento.

You are not invited to the wedding.

Accusative forms

Singular Plural

m f m f

First person min me nós / nosoutros us nós / nosoutras us

Second person ti you vós / vosoutros you vós / vosoutras you

Third person el him ela her eles them elas them

si himself / herself si themselves

These are the forms that stressed pronouns have when they are preceded by a preposition.

The form si is used as a reflexive form:

Antonio[a] deu[a]lle[b] un pouco de pastel a seu irmán[b] e quedou[a] con outro tanto para si[a].

Antonio[a] gave[a] (him[b]) a piece of cake to his brother[b] and kept[a] another for himself[a].

The following forms are used when the above-mentioned pronouns are preceded by the preposition con with:

First person: sing. comigo with me; pl. connosco or con nós or con nosoutros / con nosoutras with us;
Second person: sing. contigo with you; pl. convosco or con vós or con vosoutros / vosoutras with you;
Third person: sing. consigo with himself / herself and con el / ela with him / her; pl. consigo with themselves and con eles / elas with them.

Examples:

Xulio, ¿vés comigo ó recado?

Xulio, are you coming with me?

Susana dixo que non quería nada contigo.

Susana said she did not want to have anything to do with you.

Vai con ela, está vella e pode caer.

Go with her, she is old and might fall down.

In third person, the form consigo is not interchangeable with con el / con ela, because the form consigo can only be used as a reflexive.

The forms like comigo, contigo etc. are inherited from Classical Latin and are used also in modern Spanish and Portuguese, whiile in Italian they occur in the old poetic texts.

Unstressed forms (Pronomes átonos)

Singular Plural

Accusative Dative Accusative Dative

m f m f m f m f

First person me me nos nos

Second person te che vos vos

Third person o
lo
no a
la
na lle os
los
nos as
las
nas lles

Examples:

Desde aquí véxote ben.

I see you well from here.

¿Deiche o libro ou non?

Did I give you the book or not?

The distribution of the third person allomorphs is the following:

A) The form o / a occurs after verbs ending in a vowel or the consonant -n:

Ámao (ama + o) She loves him.
Ámano (aman + o) They love him.
Cóllea (colle + a) Take her.
Cólleno (collen + o) They take him.

B) The form lo / la occurs after verbs ending in the consonants -s or -r:

Cóllelo (colles + o) You take him.
Collelo (coller + o) To take him.
Pártela (partes + a) You split it.
Partila (partir + a) To split it.

C) The form no / na occurs after verbs ending in diphthong:

Amouno (amou + o) She loved him.
Colleuna (colleu + a) He took her.
Partiuno (partiu + o) He split (past) it (masc.).

Though unstresed pronouns normally have central functions in clauses, they are sometimes syntactically optional. For example, in

Dóecheme a cabeza. My head aches.

che is a so-called solidarity dative (optional) and me is the indirect object. In

Déronlleme un premio ó cativo. They gave a prize to my child.

lle is the indirect object and me is a so-called dative of interest (optional).

The forms used as reflexive and reciprocal pronouns are: me, te, se (for the singular) and nos, vos, se (for the plural).

Unstressed reflexive pronouns can only function as direct objects:

Antonio[a] lavouse[a].

Antonio[a] washed himself[a].

The form se is also used to avoid mentioning the agent of an action:

Véndese esta casa.

This house is sold / is for sale.

The sequences of unstressed pronouns have a fixed order and some can be contracted with others:

Deicho = dei + che + o I gave it to you;
Déillelo = dei + lles + lo I gave it to them;
Dóuvolo = dou + vos + lo I give it to you.

Pronoun Order (Orde pronominal)

In simple declarative or interrogative clauses, the pronoun usually follows the verb:

Levoute de paseo.

He took you for a walk.

Túa irmá tróuxovos un regalo.

Your sister brought you a present.

Déronlle o caderno?

Did they give him the notebook?

In all other clauses, i.e., negative, subordinate, etc., the pronoun precedes the verb:

A vendedora non me devolveu os cartos.

The saleswoman did not give me the money back.

Alberte dixo que lle levases un vaso de auga.

Alberte said that you should bring take him a glass of water.

Ogallá lle dean un premio.

I wish they would give him a prize.

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	*Singular*		*Plural*
	m	f	m	f
*First person*	eu I you		nós / nosoutros we	nós / nosoutras we
*Second person*	ti you		vós / vosoutros you	vós / vosoutras you
*Third person*	el he	ela she	eles they	elas they

	*Singular*				*Plural*
	*Accusative*		*Dative*		*Accusative*		*Dative*
	m	f	m	f	m	f	m	f
*First person*	me		me		nos		nos
*Second person*	te		che		vos		vos
*Third person*	o lo no	a la na	lle		os los nos	as las nas	lles