The Correct Answer and Explanation is:
Correct Answer: Nosotros
The correct answer to fill in the blank is the Spanish pronoun “Nosotros.”
The original sentence, “Mi prima y yo tenemos doce años,” translates to “My cousin and I are twelve years old.” This sentence is grammatically complete and correct. The exercise requires substituting the compound subject, “Mi prima y yo” (My cousin and I), with the single subject pronoun that represents it.
In Spanish, the subject pronoun for “we” can be either “nosotros” or “nosotras.” The choice is determined by the gender of the people making up the group. “Nosotros” is used when the group is composed of all males or a mix of males and females. “Nosotras” is used only when the group is composed entirely of females.
In the phrase “Mi prima y yo,” we can identify one member of the group, “mi prima,” as female. However, the gender of “yo” (I/me) is unknown from the sentence alone. If the person speaking (“yo”) is male, the group is mixed-gender (one female, one male), and the correct pronoun is “nosotros.” If the person speaking is female, the group is all-female, and the correct pronoun would be “nosotras.”
Without additional context to specify the speaker’s gender, the standard convention in Spanish is to use the masculine form “nosotros” as the default or inclusive pronoun for a group of unknown or mixed gender. Therefore, “Nosotros” is the most universally correct answer for this exercise. The new sentence, “Nosotros tenemos doce años,” correctly uses the first-person plural pronoun that aligns with the verb conjugation “tenemos” (we have), perfectly preserving the original meaning of the statement.
