A short entry restating something that I feel needs emphasizing. Many teachers, specially those with Latin American backgrounds, tend to skip teaching vosotros in Spanish class, or instruct their students not to pay attention to it.
You need vosotros in Spain. Not understanding or using vosotros is like not knowing or understanding nosotros. It is that basic. Otherwise you’ll be forever noticed as the foreigner that can’t speak proper Spanish yet.
Spain is a very laid-back, casual country, so everybody refers to each other as tú (an action called tutear) and vosotros. Even in the workplace and at university.
Unless you are extremely sure to never leave the Canary Islands, where in the plural they do use ustedes even with friends, make sure to know your vosotros. And tú, of course.
After all, you get usted and ustedes for free with ella/él, if you happen to need them in some random ocassion.
Originally published in Talk like a Spaniard.