The Yo pronoun. Do we need it?

Is it better to say yo camino or simply camino?

Actually both are correct, technically speaking. However one of them would sound redundant -in most cases- whereas the other one is how you´ll hear native speakers say it. Can you guess which is which?

Your guess is correct!

We usually drop the YO pronoun (as well as the TU and NOSOTROS pronouns) because they are what is called understood subject pronouns. What is this grammar mumbo-jumbo?  Ha!

This means that we do not need to use them because doing so is reduntant.

Why? If we look at the verb in our example at the beginning, caminar... yo camino, the ending  -o of the conjugation is quite self-explanatory as to who the subject is, the same in the case of  TU.. caminas or NOSOTROS caminamos.

This wouldn´t be the case for EL, ELLA, UDS, ELLOS, ELLAS, where the form of the verb (conjugation) isn´t clear enough by itself to explain who the subject is,  so it needs to be accompanied by either one of these pronouns or a name.

Unclear: Habla todos los dias.
Clear: Ella habla todos los días.

Now, there is a time when we DO need to use pronouns YO, TU & NOSOTROS, and that is when we specifically want to emphazise and distinguish the person performing an action.

YO compro los boletos, y TU las palomitas, ¿va?
I´ll buy the tickets and YOU buy the popcorn, deal?

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Pancho Villa´s son dies in USA

The last surviving son of Mexican revolutionary hero Pancho Villa, Ernesto Nava Villa, died in Castro Valley, California, at age 94 last Dec. 31st.

I was interested at this piece of news as not so long ago, I learned about the existence of Ernesto Nava Villa - I guess as everyone else - and the amazing stories about how he kept his true identity hidden for over 80 years after having promised his mother, in fear that Villa´s enemies both sides of the border would retaliate or seek vengance.
It turns out that Mr. Nava was taken to the United States at age 2 by his mother, Macedonia Ramírez, fleeing from the political turmoil caused by the revolution and the persecution of Gral. Pancho Villa, in Mexico and the US.
In 1923, shortly after Gral. Villa was assassinated, eight-year-old Ernesto Nava learned the truth about his father and promised his mother,  never to tell anyone about it.
It wasn´t until his first visit to México after 70 years, at the city of Parral in the Mexican state of Durango - the city where Gral. Villa was gunned down - that the world knew of this hidden legacy.

Visit the website of Ernesto Nava, the last surviving son of Pancho Villa to know more about him and Pancho Villa.

 Trailer: "Pancho Villa: La Revolución no ha terminado", Mexico, 2006.

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