nosotros

Nosotros is the Spanish first-person plural subject pronoun meaning "we." It refers to the speaker or speakers together with at least one other person and governs verbs in the plural first person, as in nosotros hablamos or nosotros vamos.

Gender and variant forms exist: noso­tros is used for groups that are all male or mixed-gender, while nosotras is used for all-female groups. The choice reflects the gender composition of the referent group, not the speaker, and both forms function identically in terms of conjugation and syntax.

Usage notes: in Spain, the second-person plural forms include vosotros (informal) and ustedes (formal), with ustedes widely used in Latin America for both formal and informal address. Despite these differences in second-person forms, nosotros/nosotras remains the standard first-person plural subject pronoun across dialects. Spanish does not have a distinct morphological inclusive/exclusive distinction for "we"; inclusion of the listener is indicated by context or by adding explicit phrasing such as "nosotros y ustedes" or "solo nosotros" when needed.

Etymology and history: noso­tros derives from a combination of nos (us) and otros (others). The form appears in Early Modern Spanish as a compound pronoun to designate the speaker together with others.

See also: Spanish pronouns; gender in Spanish; inclusive language; pronoun usage in Spanish dialects.