When to use tú vs. tu

PaulB59

PaulB59

In lesson 1.1 two statements vary in their use of "tu". I assume I'm going to learn more about this as I go, but I want to know now! ;)  The grammatical comment suggests they are the same form. Is it merely for emphasis in the first?
Thanks!
 
¿Cómo estás tú?
How are you? (sing/informal)
 
Gracias por tu participación.
Thank you for your participation. (sing/informal)
ricardo-rich

ricardo-rich

Hola Paul,

Tú is a subject pronoun, you  informal, the familiar usage as opposed to usted, (sing/ formal.) Tu is a possessive adjective, your, informal, su your (formal). Hope this helps.
Saludos,
Ricardo

 
PaulB59

PaulB59

Aha, yes, that explains these two examples. Guess it would be helpful to have more information than "sing/informal" but I'm sure that's coming. Thanks ricardo-rich!
Dan-H24

Dan-H24

Paul: in fairness, the English translation highlights the difference:
¿Cómo estás tú?....How are YOU?
Gracias por tu participación...Thank you for YOUR participation. 

When I began learning I had a similar difficulty with está, esta, y ésta. At first I thought it was a typo, then realized the presence, absence, and/or location of the tilde connoted completely separate words. It was then that I realized how important that little mark is in Spanish.
PaulB59

PaulB59

Gracias, Dan-H24. Since posting this, I too have learned the significance of the accent!

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