vendredi 8 avril 2011

Lesson 3: Pronouns II

You might have noticed that in French there are two different words for "you:" tu, and vous.

The difference is that tu is known as the "informal, singular you." That is to say, it would be used to address either a single person whom the speaker knows very well (family or close friends), a young child, or an animal.

vous, on the other hand, is the formal version. It would be used to address a stranger or an acquaintance, a person of authority (e.g. a teacher), a person older than oneself (if one is a child), in general anybody that the speaker doesn't know well.

In addition, vous can be the plural form of you. It's used any time more than one person is being addressed, even if the people would normally fall under the informal tu category. Thus, both a group of strangers and a group of close friends would be addressed as vous.

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