“Vocês” does not have a single translation into Spanish. Throughout Hispanic America, the normal form for addressing more than one person is ustedes, in both formal and informal situations. In most of Spain, the choice is split: vosotros or vosotras is usually the informal form, while ustedes marks formal address. The RAE also notes that, in the Canary Islands and western Andalusia, ustedes is also used for the informal plural. For that reason, “Spain = vosotros; Latin America = ustedes” works as an initial shortcut, but it does not solve every case.
The translation also does not end with the pronoun. Choosing vosotros brings second-person plural verb forms, as well as forms such as os and vuestro. Choosing ustedes requires, in the standard norm, third-person plural verbs and combinations such as les, se, and su. This is why choosing only between two words and leaving the rest of the sentence unchanged often produces agreement errors.
The first question is: which Spanish variety are you translating into?
Before thinking about formality, define the audience. A text for Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, or any other American variety tends to use ustedes for the plural of the people being addressed. This remains true even in countries where the informal singular is vos rather than tú. Vos is singular; ustedes remains plural.
If the destination is most of Spain, the opposition between closeness and formality comes into play. Among friends, close colleagues, relatives, or an audience addressed informally, vosotros or vosotras is the expected choice. In ceremonial communication, formal service, or situations in which the group is addressed with distance and courtesy, ustedes is used.
This geographical and pragmatic distinction is exactly the kind of factor that translation research calls extralinguistic. A study by Valdecy Oliveira Pontes and Livya Lea Oliveira Pereira, published in UFSC’s Cadernos de Tradução, emphasizes that the choice of forms of address needs to consider the audience and the goals of the translation, not merely a dictionary equivalence.
In most of Spain, vosotros is informal and ustedes is formal
The Diccionario panhispánico de dudas, from the RAE and ASALE, describes vosotros as the form used in most of Spain for informally addressing several people. In a conversation among friends, “Vocês vão sair hoje?” can be “¿Vais a salir hoy?” or, if there is a reason to make the subject explicit, “¿Vosotros vais a salir hoy?”.
In the same system, ustedes is used for formal plural address. Thus, a question addressed more ceremoniously to customers or guests may be “¿Ustedes desean pasar?” or simply “¿Desean pasar?”. The fact that the pronoun can be omitted does not change the agreement system: desean is still a third-person plural form.
Vosotras is used when the group is female
Vosotros varies for gender. When the group consists of women, vosotras is used. In a group that includes male referents, traditional grammar uses vosotros. Ustedes, by contrast, does not change form according to the gender of the group, although adjectives and participles may agree when necessary.
In the Americas, ustedes works for both formal and informal plural address
In American Spanish, ustedes is the general form for speaking to more than one person. The RAE records that, throughout the Americas, it serves for both formal and informal address. This means that the pronoun by itself does not indicate whether the relationship is intimate or ceremonial in the same way that the vosotros/ustedes contrast usually does in most of Spain.
Compare a simple sentence. For friends in Madrid, “Vocês podem esperar um minuto?” can be “¿Podéis esperar un minuto?”. For friends in Mexico City, Bogotá, or Buenos Aires, the natural form is “¿Pueden esperar un minuto?”. In a formal situation in most of Spain, the same structure with pueden also appears: “¿Pueden esperar un minuto?”. Context is what signals the register.
This also explains why it makes no sense to replace “vocês” with vos in countries where voseo is used. Vos corresponds to one interlocutor in the singular. In an Argentine conversation, for example, vos can appear in the singular and ustedes in the plural without any contradiction.
The Canary Islands and western Andalusia break the “Spain = vosotros” shortcut
The division by country needs an important qualification. The DPD records that, within Spain, the Canary Islands and western Andalusia also use ustedes to refer informally to several people. In those areas, vosotros does not occupy the same everyday space that it does in most of Spain.
There are also Andalusian dialect uses in which local combinations of ustedes appear with verb forms historically associated with the second person plural. This type of agreement is relevant for describing regional speech, but it should not be used as a general translation rule. For a standard text, the RAE’s guidance is clear: ustedes functions grammatically as third person and requires a third-person plural verb.
This difference is a good example of why a localized translation should not turn linguistic maps into absolute borders. Country is a strong criterion, but region and communicative situation also matter.
The choice changes the whole sentence, not just the pronoun
The most common mistake is to replace ustedes with vosotros, or the other way around, without revising the words that depend on it. In practice, the decision reorganizes at least the verb and, in many cases, unstressed pronouns and possessives.
With vosotros, the verb goes in the second person plural
The RAE records forms such as sois, estáis, tenéis, queréis, podéis, and habéis for vosotros. Thus, “Vocês estão prontos?” can be “¿Estáis listos?” in an informal situation in most of Spain. “Vocês podem enviar os documentos?” can be “¿Podéis enviar los documentos?”.
When possessives appear, the same system uses vuestro, vuestra, vuestros, and vuestras. “Os documentos de vocês estão aqui” can be “Vuestros documentos están aquí” in an informal Peninsular context.
With ustedes, the verb goes in the third person plural
Although ustedes refers to the people being spoken to, its grammatical agreement is third person. The correct forms are “ustedes están”, “ustedes tienen”, “ustedes pueden”, and “ustedes han llegado”. The RAE considers mixing ustedes with forms such as habéis inappropriate in the standard norm.
The other elements follow the same system. In “Vou enviar os arquivos para vocês”, a solution with ustedes is “Voy a enviarles los archivos”. In “Os documentos de vocês estão aqui”, “Sus documentos están aquí” can be used. A reflexive form, meanwhile, uses se: “¿Ustedes se
acuerdan?”.
This point is especially important for speakers of Brazilian Portuguese, because vocês also refers to the people being addressed but normally appears with a third-person verb: “vocês podem”. The structural similarity with ustedes can make learning easier, but it does not allow vosotros to be treated in the same way: “vosotros pueden” is incorrect; the standard form is “vosotros podéis”.
Omitting the pronoun does not eliminate the decision
Spanish allows the subject pronoun to be omitted in many contexts. For that reason, it is often more natural to write “¿Podéis venir mañana?” than “¿Vosotros podéis venir mañana?”, or “¿Pueden venir mañana?” instead of “¿Ustedes pueden venir mañana?”.
This omission can make the sentence more idiomatic, but it does not resolve the choice between the two systems. The verb ending continues to reveal the variety: podéis points to vosotros; pueden points to ustedes or to a third-person subject recoverable from context.
In some texts, however, omission helps reduce repetition and prevents the translation from sounding like a grammar exercise. The pronoun should appear when there is contrast, emphasis, courtesy, or a need to remove ambiguity, not merely because “vocês” was explicit in the Portuguese original.
How to decide in a real translation
If the text has a clear geographical destination, respect the variety of the audience. For a campaign aimed at Mexican, Colombian, Argentine, or Chilean readers, use the ustedes system. For informal communication localized for most of Spain, use vosotros or vosotras and adjust all the agreement. For formal communication in Spain, use ustedes.
If the text is going to the Canary Islands or to a specific area of western Andalusia, do not automatically apply the Madrid pattern. Ustedes may be the local informal form. In highly localized materials, it is worth observing the actual usage of the community and the register of the text genre.
If the audience is Pan-Hispanic and there will be a single version, there is no perfect solution that preserves the same degree of informality everywhere. Ustedes is understood throughout the Spanish-speaking world and is the natural form in the Americas, but it can sound formal in most of Spain. In that case, one editorial alternative is to reduce constructions directly marked for the second person plural when doing so does not hurt clarity. Instead of a call to action such as “¿Queréis recibir novedades?” or “¿Quieren recibir novedades?”, for example, an interface can use “Recibir novedades”. This is not a grammatical rule, but a localization strategy.
When tone is central to the product, two versions usually preserve the intention better: an American version with ustedes and an informal Peninsular version with vosotros. The decision stops being “which pronoun is correct?” and becomes “what relationship does this text want to build with this audience?”.
Four examples of “vocês” translated in context
“Vocês chegaram cedo.” For friends in most of Spain: “Habéis llegado temprano” or “Vosotros habéis llegado temprano”. For a group in the Americas: “Han llegado temprano” or “Ustedes han llegado temprano”. For a group addressed formally in most of Spain, likewise: “Ustedes han llegado temprano”.
“Vocês querem café?” In an informal conversation in Madrid: “¿Queréis café?”. In an informal conversation in Mexico City: “¿Quieren café?”. At a formal reception in Spain: “¿Ustedes quieren café?” is possible, although the specific wording may vary according to the desired degree of
courtesy.
“Vou escrever para vocês amanhã.” In an informal Peninsular context: “Os escribiré mañana”. With ustedes: “Les escribiré mañana”. Here the choice appears in the unstressed pronoun even without vosotros or ustedes being written in the sentence.
“Este é o projeto de vocês.” With vosotros: “Este es vuestro proyecto”. With ustedes: “Este es su proyecto”. The possessive su can be ambiguous out of context because it also serves other third-person references; when clarity requires it, “el proyecto de ustedes” makes the reference explicit.
The mistake is not using ustedes or vosotros: it is ignoring the system you chose
Both forms are correct within their contexts. The problem appears when the translation treats “vocês” as an isolated piece and forgets that forms of address organize a network of agreement patterns and social expectations.
It is also a mistake to imagine that every Spanish text needs to contain the subject pronoun. Often, the most natural translation omits the pronoun and lets verb inflection carry the grammatical person. Likewise, “ustedes” is not automatically formal in the Americas, and “vosotros” should not be used as a neutral option for every Spanish-speaking country.
A practical rule to keep from getting lost
When you encounter “vocês”, define the audience first and the word second. If the translation is for the Americas, the plural reference will normally be ustedes, with a third-person plural verb. If it is for most of Spain and the address is informal, use vosotros or vosotras, with a second-person plural verb. If it is formal in most of Spain, use ustedes. If the destination is the Canary Islands or areas of western Andalusia, remember that ustedes can also be informal.
Then review the whole sentence: verb, unstressed pronouns, possessives, and adjectives. That second pass is what turns a dictionary equivalence into a translation that is coherent with the variety and with the relationship between writer and reader.
