nosotros
we, us
Reviewed by: David WestfallCofounder
Refers to a group that includes the speaker
Encoding Strategies:
linguistic
nos
us
+
otros
others
Nosotros means we or us and is literally nos0 (us0) plus otros1 (others1): "us others," me and the people with me.
nosotros
we (subject)
The subject form: who is doing the action. Since the verb ending already signals "we," it's often added for emphasis or contrast.
Nosotros queremos aprender españolWe want to learn Spanish
Ellos van en coche, pero nosotros vamos a pieThey're going by car, but we're going on foot
us (after prepositions)
Spanish keeps the same word where English switches to "us" after words like "with" or "for."
¿Quieres venir con nosotros a la playa?Do you want to come to the beach with us?
Este regalo es para nosotrosThis gift is for us
ourselves (reflexive or emphatic)
Becomes "ourselves" when it points back at the group itself.
Repartimos las tareas entre nosotrosWe split the chores among ourselves
Lo construimos nosotros mismosWe built it ourselves