Usted between verbs

Devin P.B1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

Usted between verbs

Why is usted placed in the middle of the verbal structure? After estar but before the gerund.

Asked 3 weeks ago
SilviaKwiziq Native Spanish TeacherCorrect answer

Hola Devin P.

Great observation! The short answer is that "usted" is not part of the verb structure itself—it’s a subject pronoun, and its placement depends on sentence emphasis and style rather than strict grammatical rules.

In Spanish, subject pronouns like "usted" can appear before the full verb phrase ("usted está lavándose las manos") or, less commonly but still valid, between parts of a periphrastic construction like:

"Está usted lavándose las manos."

This placement—between "estar" and the gerund—is especially common in formal speech or written Spanish, and serves to maintain clarity or to add a more elegant rhythm or emphasis to the sentence.

Both are grammatically correct:

"Usted está lavándose..." (more neutral/standard)
"Está usted lavándose..." (more formal/emphatic)

So you're spotting a stylistic nuance of Spanish that becomes more visible with practice. It’s not the reflexive pronoun’s position that’s in question here, but rather the flexibility of where the subject pronoun can sit in relation to a compound verb phrase.

Let us know if you'd like examples with other tenses or pronouns!

Saludos

Silvia

Devin P. asked:

Usted between verbs

Why is usted placed in the middle of the verbal structure? After estar but before the gerund.

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