T-V distinction
Encyclopedia
In sociolinguistics
, a T–V distinction is a contrast, within one language, between second-person
pronoun
s that are specialized for varying levels of politeness, social distance
, courtesy, familiarity, or insult toward the addressee.
Languages (e.g., English) which have no syntactic
T–V distinction, may have semantic
analogues to convey the metioned attitudes towards the addressee, such as whether to address someone by first or last name, or whether to use "sir
" / "ma'am" in US English.
, tu and vos. In Latin, tu was originally the singular, and vos the plural, with no distinction for honorific or familiar. According to Brown and Gilman, usage of the plural to the Roman emperor
began in the fourth century AD. They mention the possibility that this was because there were often two or more emperors at that time as augusti, caesares
and other titles, and later separate rulers in Constantinople
and Rome
, but also that "plurality is a very old and ubiquitous metaphor for power". This usage was extended to other powerful figures, such as Pope Gregory I
(590–604). However, Brown and Gilman note that it was only between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries that the norms for the use of T- and V-forms crystallized. Less commonly, the use of the plural may be extended to other grammatical person
, such as the "royal we" (majestic plural).
Brown and Gilman argued that the choice of form is governed by either relationships of 'power' and/or 'solidarity', depending on the culture of the speakers, showing that 'power' had been the dominant predictor of form in Europe until the twentieth century. Thus, it was quite normal for a powerful person to use a T-form but expect a V-form in return. However in the twentieth century the dynamic shifted in favour of solidarity, so that people would use T-forms with those they knew, and V-forms in service encounters, with reciprocal usage being the norm in both cases.
One other use of the distinction that occurs in some languages is the expression of "mock respect", essentially a humorous way of expressing disapproval, by the use of the formal form to address people with whom one would not normally use it, such as children or close friends.
Brown and Gilman's V-T Theory has been very influential, perhaps in part because its binary system is a convenient, easy-to-grasp concept. However, the V-T Theory does not provide an entirely satisfactory framework of interpretation as clearly shown in the case of modern English with its universal 'you' instead of a grammatical V-T binary system. Moving with the times, Manuela Cook's N-V-T Theory provides a dimension of Neutrality.
Modern English does not have a T–V pronoun distinction. In earlier versions of English, thou/thee was used as a T-form for singular second person, while ye/you marked the V-form. However, use of the thou forms became stigmatised and they disappeared from speech, leading to the situation where the original V-form, you, became the only second-person pronoun and thou and thee are considered archaic. To a modern English speaker unaware of the origin of the distinction, the use of thou (for example in prayer), originally a sign of intimacy, now has connotations of formality due to its archaic appearance.
The boundaries between formal and informal language differ from language to language, as well as within social groups of the speakers of a given language. In some circumstances, it is not unusual to call other people by first name and the respectful form, or last name and familiar form. For example, German teachers use the former construct with upper-secondary students, while Italian teachers typically use the latter (switching to a full V-form with university students). This can lead to constructions denoting an intermediate level of formality in T–V-distinct languages that sound awkward to English-speakers. For example, the catchphrase of "Be careful, Michael" from Knight Rider was usually dubbed
"Seien Sie vorsichtig, Michael" in German, implying both formality (use of Sie) and familiarity (use of first name).
The use of these forms calls for compensating translation of dialogue into English. For example, a character in a French film or novel saying "Tutoie-moi!" ("Use [the informal pronoun] tu when addressing me!") might be translated "Do not be so formal!"
-speaking and some Nordic
countries, it is the third person plural. Some languages have separate T and V forms for both singular and plural; others have the same form; others have a T–V distinction only in the singular.
Different languages distinguish pronoun uses in different ways. Even within languages, there are differences between groups (older people and people of higher status tending both to use and to expect more respectful language) and between various aspects of one language. For example, in Dutch, u is slowly falling into disuse in the plural, and thus one could sometimes address a group as jullie (which clearly expresses the plural) when one would address each member individually as u (which has the disadvantage of being ambiguous). In Latin American Spanish, the opposite change has occurred — having lost vosotros, Latin Americans address all groups as ustedes, even if the group is composed of friends whom they would call tú or vos
. In Standard Peninsular Spanish, however, vosotros (literally, "you others") is still regularly employed in familiar conversation. In some cases, V-forms are likely to be capitalized when written.
Following is a table of singular and plural versions of the second person plural and singular in many languages. Many of these do not demonstrate T–V distinction in the above sense of the "you" plural being used for "you" singular informal.
Dutch speaker (as identified by his or her accent).
North American dialects of French
, including Quebec French
and Acadian French
as well as Louisiana Cajun
and Creole
French, permit and expect a far broader usage of the familiar tu than in Standard French
. There are still circumstances in which it is appropriate to say vous: in a formal interview (notably for a job) or when addressing people of very high rank (such as judges or prime ministers), senior citizens, customers or new acquaintances in a formal setting. As acquaintances become familiar with one another, they may find vous to be unnecessarily formal and may agree to return to the tu with which they are generally more comfortable.
For a number of Francophones in Canada, vous sounds stilted or snobbish, and archaic. Tu is by no means restricted to intimates or social inferiors. There is however an important minority of people, often those who call for a use of standard French in Quebec, who prefer to be addressed as vous. At Radio-Canada (the public broadcaster, often considered as establishing the normative objectives of standard French in Canada), the use of vous is widespread even among colleagues.
uses the singular pronouns tu (informal) and vostè (formal), while vosaltres (informal) and vostès (formal) are used to refer to two or more addressees. The form vós, used instead of tu to address someone respectfully, follows the same concordance rules as the French vous (verbs in second person plural, adjectives in singular), and vostè follows the same concordance rules as the Spanish usted (verbs in 3rd person). Vostè originated from vostra mercè as a calque
from Spanish, and replaced the original Catalan form vós.
In some dialects of Catalan, vós is no longer used. Other dialects have a three-way distinction tu/vós/vostè, where vós is used as a respectful form for elders and respected friends, and vostè for foreigners and people whom one does not know well. Vostè is more distant than vós.
, the respectful form requires verbs to be conjugated in the third person singular; this is because the form usted evolved from the title vuestra merced (your grace) which naturally took the third person like the Portuguese você. In some cases, if a younger person speaks to someone who is relatively older, the younger of the pair will address the elder with usted, perhaps combining it with Don
. However, an altered form of vuestra merced, su merced (which in colloquial language has been phonetically reduced to sumercé), has survived in the rural areas located in the plateau
that surrounds Colombia
's capital city, Bogotá
.
In the plural, Spanish presents the T-form vosotros and the V-form ustedes , which use verbs in the second and third person plural, respectively. However, only mainland Spain and the Balearic Islands
have retained this distinction, while in the Canaries
and Latin America, ustedes is almost the only form used in all contexts. In Western Andalusia
and parts of Extremadura
, ustedes is frequently used as well, but combined with the verb forms corresponding to vosotros in standard European Spanish.
In just but a few dialects, close friends are still referred to as tú, and venerable old women are usted, but there is a wide grey area in the middle. Just within Mexico
is tu widely used. All of Latin America uses vos instead.
Traditionally in some parts of Andalusia
and in all of the Canary Islands
the second person plural pronoun has been ustedes both for respectful and familiar address. However this system is being replaced by the T–V distinction of peninsular Spain, i.e. vosotros and vosotras are increasingly being used for familiar address.
Vos and tú
In the Rioplatense
Spanish
variant used in most of Argentina
and Uruguay
the T-form is vos; in other parts, for example in Chile
and Central America
, vos is used in the spoken language and tú in print or formal contexts (although most formal contexts call for the respectful V-form, usted). The use of tú as the preferred T-form has its highest prevalence in Spain, as well as Mexico
and Peru
.
The history behind tú-vos-usted is that for a time all three forms existed in Spain including during the colonization of the Americas
. In most of Spain the vos form died out and is now largely regarded as an archaic expression and this attitude has been adopted in most of Mexico, Peru, and other countries.
In European Portuguese
(as well as in Africa and Asia), tu (singular "you") is commonly used as the familiar addressing pronoun, while você is a general form of address; vocês (plural both of "tu" and "você") is used for both familiar and general. The forms o senhor and a senhora (plurals os senhores and as senhoras) are used for more formal situations (roughly equivalent to "Mr/Sir" and "Mrs/Madam".) Similarly to some Romance languages (e.g. Italian), "tu" can be omitted because the verb ending provides the necessary information. Not so much so with "você" or "o senhor" / "a senhora" because the verb ending is the same as for the third person (historically, você derives from vossa mercê ("your mercy" or "your grace") via the intermediate forms vossemecê and vosmecê). The second person plural pronoun vós, from Latin vos, is archaic in most of the Portuguese-speaking world, but can be heard in liturgy and has a limited regional use.
In Brazilian Portuguese
, você and vocês (singular and plural "you", respectively) are used informally, while o senhor and a senhora ("Mr"/"Sir" and "Mrs"/"Madam", plurals os senhores and as senhoras) are used in formal speech.
In many parts of the country (the state of Rio Grande do Sul
, some parts of the City of Rio de Janeiro
, and the northern and northeastern states and in the City of Santos (São Paulo)
) tu (singular "you" or simply "thou") is used informally, but the plural form is always vocês. However, in colloquial conversation, the pronoun tu is commonly used with the verb conjugated as "você" (third-person singular).
the formal second-person singular pronoun is Lei which means "she", used with the third-person singular of the verb, as opposed to the informal tu, used with the second-person singular. For the background to the use of "she" as a polite pronoun, see the section "History" below.
It is also possible to use Ella as a very polite alternative, but this is perceived as archaic, since in spoken Italian the nominative forms of the personal pronouns egli ("he"), essi/esse ("they") and ella ("she") have fallen out of common use, being replaced by the accusative forms lui ("him"), loro ("them") and lei ("her").
Lei may be capitalized as a sign of respect, particularly in administrative or business correspondence; if the pronoun is capitalized, so are all its forms, including the enclitics: "...vorrei incontrarLa per parlarGliene" ("...I should like to meet you to talk to you about this").
Lei is nowadays generally concorded
with the gender of the addressee; it might actually not be present in sentences as Italian is not subject-compulsory, and is then understood by the verb being conjugated in the third person. "[Lei] è mai stata a Roma?" (-a: to a female; rarely to a male, in a literary or archaic style).
The polite plural form Loro ("they"), followed by a verb in the third-person plural, is rarely used nowadays. Voi ("you", plural) is normally used both in informal and formal contexts when addressing more than one person. A situation where Loro can still be heard is in restaurants, because many waiters still use this form to address customers. A waiter might even use as a more formal alternative to the pronoun Lei the terms il signore/la signora (the gentleman/the lady), and for the pronoun Loro the corresponding plurals i signori/le signore. "Che cosa desiderano mangiare?" (Loro is understood)
"Che cosa desiderano mangiare i signori/le signore?" ("What do the gentlemen/ladies wish to eat?")
In administrative correspondence and on very formal invitations, la S.V. may be written instead of the pronoun Lei: "La S.V. è invitata...". The abbreviation stands for la Signoria Vostra "Your Lordship/Ladyship", which is the historical basis for the use of the third-person feminine pronoun (see also below).
Lei is normally used in formal settings, or with strangers, and it is used reciprocally between adults: the usage may not be reciprocal when young people address older strangers or otherwise respected people. Students are addressed with tu by their teachers until the end of high school with few exceptions, and usually with lei in universities. Students might use tu with their teachers in elementary school, but switch to lei from middle school.
Currently, people tend to address strangers of their own age using the informal tu until about thirty years of age. Tu is also the pronoun of first choice to address strangers on the Internet. In some professional circles (notably among journalists and lawyers), the tu-form is used immediately even on first meeting, as a sign of recognition of a colleague's status as a member of the same profession. In written correspondence, however, the pronoun will usually be capitalized (Tu) to express also respect towards somebody who is not a close friend.
Voi ("you", plural) may be used by some speakers instead of lei, especially in Southern Italy, but it sounds old-fashioned. When it is addressed respectfully to one person, the pronoun voi is used with singular adjectives and participles, concorded with the gender of the addressee, although the verbs are still in the second-person plural form; as with lei, it can be capitalized in writing. Some people might see this use of voi as reminiscent of the Fascist regime
, since it imposed the use of voi instead of lei (see below); but the pronoun had been traditional for centuries, and was used for example by children to address parents, as it was less formal than lei. Voi can be found in instruction booklets, where it is more common than tu, lei or impersonal constructions, and sometimes in advertisements (together with tu, while lei would sound too distant); but in these settings it is often intended as a plural pronoun rather than a polite form.
At the beginning of its history, in the Middle Ages
, the Italian language had a tu/voi distinction of formality, as with other Romance languages
; in his Divine Comedy (begun in 1307), Dante
normally uses tu when talking to the people he meets, but addresses them with voi when he means to show particular respect, for example to his former teacher: "Siete voi qui, ser Brunetto?" ("Are you here, sir Brunetto?").
During the Renaissance
the use of Lei as a polite pronoun began, and subsequently spread with some influence from Spanish
; the origin of this usage is due to expressions as "Your Lordship/Eminence/Majesty/Holiness/...", where all of these nouns were feminine in gender (Vostra Signoria/Eminenza/Maestà/Santità/...) and referred to in the third-person singular.
For a few centuries (possibly from the 16th century to the first half of the 20th century) there was a three-pronoun system in use, with tu/voi/lei employed with a growing degree of formality; this was very well exemplified in Manzoni
's novel The Betrothed (written in 1840–42 and set in 1628–30), where the characters talk using all three pronouns: the usage was often not reciprocal, with several combinations based on age and social status.
In 1938, under Fascist
rule, the use of lei as a polite pronoun was banned on nationalistic
or puristic
grounds, since the use of voi was thought of as "more Italian": the ban lasted only for a few years, until the end of World War II, and left little trace. In some parts of Italy, particularly in Southern Italy, voi had always been preferred as the polite form and continued to be used regionally, while lei definitely prevailed as the only standard V-form.
dumneavoastră when used for the second-person singular formal takes plural verbs but singular adjectives, similar to French vous. It is used roughly in the same manner as in Continental French and shows no signs of disappearing. It is also used as a more formal voi. It originates from domnia voastră – your lordship. As happens with all subject pronouns, dumneavoastră is often omitted from sentences, its use being implied by verbs in the second person plural form.
The form dumneata (originating from domnia ta – thy lordship) is less distant than dumneavoastră and somewhat midway between tu and dumneavoastră. The verb is conjugated, as for tu, in the second person singular form. Older people towards younger people and peers favor Dumneata. Its use is gradually declining.
A more colloquial form of dumneata is mata or even matale or tălică. It is more familiar than tu and is used only in some regions of Romania. It is used only with immediate family members, and is spelled and pronounced the same in all cases, similar to dumneavoastră. It is conjugated in the second-person singular, like tu.
, sý (σύ) was the singular, and hymeis (ὑμεῖς) the plural, with no distinction for honorific or familiar. Paul
addresses King Agrippa II
as sý (Acts
26:2).
Later, hymeís and hēmeís (ἡμεῖς) ("we") became too close in pronunciation, and a new plural seís or eseís (σεις/εσείς) was invented, the initial e (ε) being a euphonic
prefix that was also extended to the singular (sý/esý).
Since the formal εσείς (eseís) starts getting less common outside schools and workplaces, many people often do not know which form to use (because using a formal version might sound too snobbish even to an elder and using the informal version might sound inappropriate to some strangers) and thus prefer to replace verbs with nouns (avoiding the dilemma) until enough information on the counterpart's intentions is gathered in order to choose between formal or informal second person pronoun and verb conjugation. A good rule of thumb is that singular accompanies first names and plural accompanies surnames with title (Mr, Mrs, etc.). Exceptions are rare, for example younger schoolchildren may address their teacher in the plural, title and first name, or an officer may address a soldier in the singular and surname. The faux pas
sequence singular-title-surname can often indicate lack of education, of good manners, or of both.
The modern social custom when using the Greek language
in Greece is to ask the other person "may we speak in the singular?" in which the other person is expected to answer "yes" and afterwards the discussion continues using the informal εσύ (esý); it is unthinkable for the other person to answer "no" or show preference for plural forms, and for this reason one should not even ask this question to a person of high status, such as a professional. Therefore, asking this question can itself be considered a form of disrespect in some social situations. Likewise, not asking this question and simply using the singular without prior explicit or implicit agreement would also be considered disrespectful in various social contingencies. In other cases, even using the formal plural (without a question) could also be considered offensive. A person being inappropriately addressed in the singular will often indicate their displeasure by insisting on responding in the plural, in a display of irony that may or may not be evident to the other party. A similar social custom exists with the words κύριε (Mr
/Sir
) and κυρία (Mrs
/Madam
) which can show both respect and a form of "mock respect" which essentially communicates disapproval, often depending on the voice intonation and the social situation. Overall, the distinction between formal and informal forms of address and when to use each can be quite subtle and not easily discernible by a non-native speaker.
, the informal form of the second-person singular is thu/tu (emphatic: thusa/tusa), used when addressing a person the speaker knows well, or when addressing a person younger or relatively the same age as the speaker. When addressing a superior, an elder, or a stranger, or in conducting business, the form sibh (emphatic: sibhse) is used. (Sibh is also the second person plural). This distinction carries over into prepositional pronouns: for instance, agad and agaibh (at you), riut and ruibh (with you), umad and umaibh (about you), etc., and into possessive pronoun
s do and ur (your).
, Cornish
and Breton
all retain a T–V distinction to varying degrees.
In spoken Welsh, the plural pronoun chi is used when speaking to strangers, elders or superiors whilst ti (or chdi in some parts of the North) is used with friends, close family, animals and children. Ti is also the form used when addressing God. Chwi is an alternative to chi found in very formal literary language.
A similar distinction exists between Cornish singular ty / chy and plural hwy / hwei, but the formal use of the plural is dying out in the modern language.
In Breton second person plural c'hwi is used as a polite form when addressing a single person and the singular te is reserved for informal situations. However, in a large area of central Brittany the singular form has been entirely replaced by c'hwi, as in English.
distinguishes between familiar ty (ты) and respectful vy (вы) — which is also the plural of both forms, used to address a pair or group. (Respectful Vy may be capitalized, while plural vy is not.) Generally, ty is used among friends and relatives, but the usage depends not only on the closeness of the relationship but also on age and the formality of the situation (e.g., work meeting vs. a party). Children always use ty to address each other and are addressed in this way by adults but are taught to address adults with vy. Younger adults typically also address older adults outside the family as vy regardless of intimacy, and may be addressed as ty in return. When talking to each other young people often start with the formal vy but may transition to ty very quickly in an informal situation. Among older people, ty is often reserved for closer acquaintances. Unless there is a substantial difference in age, the choice of the form is symmetric: if A uses ty to address B, then B also uses ty to address A. While people may transition quickly from vy to ty, such transition presumes mutual agreement. Use of ty without consent of the other person is likely to be viewed as poor conduct or even as an insult (or, in the case of opposite-sexed people, overly flirtatious), particularly if the other party maintains using vy.
Historically, the rules have been in favor of more formal usage; as late as the 19th century, it was accepted in many circles (generally of a more refined culture) that vy is to be used between close friends, between husband and wife, and when addressing one's parents (but not one's children), all of which situations today would strongly call for using ty.
The choice between ty and vy is closely related, yet sometimes different, from the choice of the addressing format — that is, the selection from the first name, patronymics, last name, and the title to be used when addressing the person. Normally, ty is associated with the informal addressing by first name only (or, even more informally, by the last name only), whereas vy is associated with the more formal addressing format of using the first name together with patronymics (roughly analogous to "title followed by last name" in English) or the last name together with a title (the last name is almost never used together with either of the other two names to address someone, although such combinations are routinely used to introduce or mention someone).
, Croatian
and Serbian
, use of ti is limited to friends and family, and used among children. In any formal use, vi is used only; ti can be used among peers in a workplace but rarely in official documents. It is a common misconception, even among native speakers, that vi is always capitalized when used in formal tone; Vi is capitalized only in direct personal correspondence between two persons.
distinguishes between familiar ti (ти) and respectful Vie (Вие), although both words literally mean "you". Basically, "ti" is singular and "vie" is plural, but there are some notable exceptions. Ti means singular "you" and implies that you know the individual personally. The word Vie has either plural or singular meaning, depending on context.
When referring to more than one person, the plural vie is used always. For example, "Вие двамата напуснете, моля!" means "You two leave, please!"), and here, although "ti" and "vie" both means "you", "ti" can not be used.
When addressing to one person, if the people talking each other are acquainted then singular "ti" is used, otherwise plural "Vie" should be used. This "singular plural" is usually hard to understand and often people start new acquaintance straight forward with singular "ti", but generally this is considered offensive, rude, or simply not polite. Children are taught to use always "ti" between themselves, unless addressing to more than one child or an unknown adult. One notable rule is that when a conversation between a teacher and a student takes place, then it is imperative the student uses the polite form, but this is not so in the opposite direction.
The grammatically correct spelling of the singular word "Vie" is always with capital "V", whether being the first word in a sentence or not. For example, the sentence "But you are wrong!", if spelled (in Bulgarian) "Но Вие грешите!" (the word "Вие" with capital "В"), it would convey that the speaker is addressing an individual person with a plural, because he/she wants to express a polite, official manner; if spelt "Но вие грешите!" (the second possible Bulgarian translation of "But you are wrong!"), it would then mean that someone is talking to several persons.
Generally, ti is used amongst friends and relatives. When talking to each other, young people often start with the formal vie but quickly transition to ti in an informal situation. Unless there is a substantial difference in social situation (e.g. a teacher and a student), the choice of the form is symmetric: if A. uses ti to address B., then B. also uses ti to address A.. While people may transition quickly from vie to ti, such transition presumes mutual agreement. There is a recent trend not to use the formal "Vie" at all (or mostly at all), but this can lead to awkward situations.
distinguishes between familiar ti (ти) and respectful vie (вие) — which is also the plural of both forms, used to address a pair or group. (Respectful Vie may be capitalized, while plural vie is not.) Generally, ti is used among friends and relatives, but the usage depends not only on the closeness of the relationship but also on age and the formality of the situation (e.g., work meeting vs. a party). Children always use ti to address each other and are addressed in this way by adults but are taught to address adults with vie. Younger adults typically also address older adults outside the family as vie regardless of intimacy, and may be addressed as ti in return. When talking to each other young people often start with the formal vie when talking to each other but may transition to ti very quickly in an informal situation. Among older people, ti is often reserved for closer acquaintances. Unless there is a substantial difference in age, the choice of the form is symmetric: if A uses ti to address B, then B also uses ti to address A. While people may transition quickly from vie to ti, such transition presumes mutual agreement. Use of ti without consent of the other person is likely to be viewed as poor conduct or even as an insult, particularly if the other party maintains using vie.
, although informal address using the 2nd person singular ti form (known as tikanje) is officially limited to friends and family, talk among children, and addressing animals, it is increasingly used instead of its polite or formal counterpart using the 2nd person plural vi form (known as vikanje).
There is an additional nonstandard but widespread use of a singular participle combined with a plural auxiliary verb (known as polvikanje) that also reveals the gender of the person and is used in somewhat less formal situations:
Vi ga niste videl/videla. ('You did not see him': the auxiliary verb niste is plural but the participle videl/videla is singular masculine/feminine.)
The use of the 3rd person plural oni form (known as onikanje in both direct address and indirect reference) as an ultra-polite form is now archaic or dialectal; it is associated with servant-master relationships in older literature, the child-parent relationship in certain conservative rural communities, and in general with relationships with people of highest respect (parents, clergy, royalty).
, there are three levels of formality. The most formal is using the plural verb forms with the surname or title of the addressed person, usual between strangers or people in a professional relationship. The second common form is made by using the singular verb forms together with the given name of the other person, used between friends and in certain social groups (students etc.). The third form, which is quite uncommon, is using the plural verb forms and the given name. It may be used by a teacher when addressing a student, or by a boss addressing his secretary, or in other relationships which are more familiar than between strangers but still not friendship. Please note that using the singular verb forms together with the surname or title is considered very rude. Where stranger introduces himself with title (like inženýr Novák, doktor Svoboda), it is considered more polite to address him with title with vy than with surname. However, with ty a title is considered very rude.
Traditionally, use of the informal form was limited for relatives, very close friends, and for children. During the second half of the 20th century, use of the informal form grew significantly among coworkers, youth and members of organisations and groups. The formal form is always used in official documents and when dealing with a stranger (especially an older one) as a sign of respect. 2nd-person pronouns (Ty, Tvůj, Vy, Váš) are often capitalized in letters, advertisement, etc. The capitalization is optional and is slowly becoming obsolete. A variant of the formal form modeled after German "Sie" (Oni/oni, Jejich/jejich, verb onikat) was frequently used during 19th century but disappeared. This form is also associated with Czech Jewish community before Second World War, and still appears very often in Jewish humour as sign of local colour. Sometimes it in used as irony
.
In the age internet, where people communicate under nicknames or pseudonymes and almost solely in informal way, capitalizing (ty/Ty mirroring English you/You) is used to emphasise respect, or simply presence of respect. (Ty = friends, honored acquaintance, strangers ty = basic form, vy/Vy = most formal, used to create distance or express contempt, very rude if not sufficiently advocated, often used as insult itself).
In grammar, plural forms are used in personal and possessive pronoun
s (vy – you, váš – your) and in verbs, but not in participle
s and adjective
s, they are used in singular forms (when addressing a single person). This is a difference from some other Slavic languages
(Slovak
, Russian
, etc.)
Greetings are also connected with T–V distinction. Formal dobrý den (good day) and na shledanou (good-bye) are used with formal vy, while ahoj, nazdar, čau (meaning both hello, hi, and bye) are informal and used with ty.
, historically, aside from familiar tu and respectful jūs or Jūs, also used to express plural, there was a special form tamsta, mostly referred to in third person singular (although referring in second person singular is also not uncommon). This form was used to communicate with a stranger who has not earned particular respect (a beggar, for example). Through the Soviet occupation period, however, this form was mostly replaced by standard neutral form drauge (the vocative case
for draugas, "comrade
", the latter being the standard formal form of addressing in all languages of the Soviet Union
used in all situations, from "comrade Stalin
" to "comrade student"), and by now tamsta is used sparsely. A common way of addressing people whom one don't know well is also Ponas (m) and Ponia (f), from Polish forms of address pan and pani, respectively.
तुम تُم tum [tʊm]: Informal form of you. Used in all informal settings and speaking to persons who are junior in job or age. No difference between the singular and the plural; plural reference can, however, be indicated by the use of "you people" (तुम लोग تُم لوگ tum log) or "you all" (तुम सब تُم سب tum sab).
तू تُو tū [tuː]: Extremely informal form of you. Strictly singular, its plural form would be तुम تُم tum. Inappropriate use of this form — i.e. other than in addressing children, very close friends, or in poetic language (either with God or with lovers) — risks being perceived as offensive in Pakistan or India.
In a similar way Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and other Dravidian tongues have honorifics and T–V distinctions, in all the persons.
has three levels of formality in its pronouns; the most neutral forms of address among closer members of a family are তুমি tumi and তোমরা tomra (plural). These two pronouns are also typically used when speaking to children, or to younger members of the extended family. তুমি tumi is also used when addressing God. When speaking with adults outside the family, or with senior members of the extended family, the pronouns আপনি apni and আপনারা apnara (plural) are used. This is also true in advertisements and public announcements. A third set of pronouns, তুই tui and তোরা tora (plural), is reserved for use between very close friends, and by extension, between relatives who share a bond not unlike a close friendship. It is also used when addressing people presumed to be of "inferior" social status; this latter use is occasionally used when speaking to housemaids, rickshaw-pullers, and other service workers, although this use is considered offensive.
The situations in which these different pronouns can be used vary considerably depending on many social factors. In some families, children may address their parents with আপনি apni and আপনারা apnara, although this is becoming increasingly rare. Some adults alternate between all three pronoun levels when speaking to children, normally choosing তুমি tumi and তোমরা tomra, but also often choosing তুই tui and তোরা tora to indicate closeness, or আপনি apni or আপনারা apnara in a joking manner. Additionally, Bengalis vary in which pronoun they use when addressing servants in the home; some may use আপনি apni and আপনারা apnara to indicate respect for an adult outside the family, while others may use তুমি tumi and তোমরা tomra to indicate either inclusion into the family or to indicate somewhat less honorable status. Others may even use তুই tui and তোরা tora to indicate inferior status.
is not a T–V-distinguishing language. Vi is the generic second person for both singular and plural, just like you in modern English. An informal second person singular pronoun, ci, does exist, but it is almost never used in practice. It is mainly intended to make the familiar/respectful distinction when translating (literature for example) from languages that do have the T–V-distinction.
Some have imagined ci as an archaic term that was used before and then fell out of common usage; however, this is not true. It has appeared only sometimes in experimental language. In standard Esperanto, vi has always been used since the beginning. For example, ci appears in neither the Fundamenta Gramatiko
nor the Unua Libro
.
, in theory tu is limited to friends and family, whereas vu is used anywhere else. However, many users actually adapt the practice in their own mother tongue and use tu and vu accordingly. In the plural, though, the only form in use is vi, which does not distinguish between formal and informal address.
In all cases, an -n is added to the original pronoun to indicate a direct object that precedes its own verb: Me amoras tu (I love you) becomes Tun me amoras if the direct object takes the first place, for example for emphatic purposes.
, today the use of the informal singular form of address (sinä) is widespread in all social circles, even among strangers and in business situations. A counter-trend has been reported in recent years, whereby some people are choosing to use the formal form more often. It mostly occurs in addressing the elderly or in situations where strict adherence to form is expected, such as in the military. As the use of the form conveys formal recognition of the addressee's status and, more correctly, of polite social distance, the formal form might also occasionally be used jeeringly or to protest the addressee's snobbery. A native speaker may also switch to formal form when speaking in anger, as an attempt to remain civil. Advertisements, instructions and other formal messages are mostly in informal singular form (sinä and its conjugations), but the use of formal forms has increased in recent years. For example, as the tax authorities tend to become more informal, in contrast the social security system is reverting to using the formal form.
The same forms, such as the pronoun te, are used for formal singular and for both formal and informal plural. Occasionally in written language the formal singular pronoun capitalized (Te) to distinguish it from a plural (te).
In Finnish the number is expressed in pronouns (sinä or sä for second person singular, or te for second person plural), verb inflections, and possessive suffix
es. Almost all of these elements follow the grammar of the second person plural also in the formal singular form. For example, polite Voisitteko te siirtää autonne vs. informal Voisitko (sinä) siirtää autosi, "Could you move your car, (please)?". Each of the person markers are modified: -t- to -tte- (verb person), sinä to te (pronoun), -si to -nne (possessive suffix).
As a few examples of this could be mentioned the way imperative
s are expressed: Menkää! "Go!" (plural), vs. Mene! "Go!" (singular), and the usage of the plural suffix -nne "your" instead of the singular -si "your".
There is number agreement in Finnish, thus you say sinä olet "you are" (singular), but te olette "you are" (plural). However, this does not extend to words describing the addressee, which are in the singular, e.g. oletteko te lääkäri? "are you doctor?" (plural,plural,singular)
A common error, nowadays often made even by native speakers unused to the formal forms, is to use the plural form of the main verb in the perfect and pluperfect constructions. The main verb should be in the singular when addressing one person in the formal plural: Oletteko kuullut? instead of *Oletteko kuulleet? "Have you heard?"
Sometimes the third person is used as a polite form of address, after the Swedish model: Mitä rouvalle saisi olla? "What would madam like to have?" This is far less common in the Eastern parts of Finland, influenced less by the Swedish language and all in all a declining habit. The passive voice
may be used to circumvent the choice of the correct form of address. In another meaning, the passive voice is also the equivalent of the English patronizing we as in Kuinkas tänään voidaan? "How are we feeling today?"
Finnish language includes the verbs for calling one with informal singular or formal plural: sinutella, teititellä, respectively.
In the Bible and in the Kalevala
, only the "informal" singular is used in all cases.
is a language with T–V distinction, second person plural (teie) is used instead of second person singular (sina) as a means of expressing politeness or formal speech. Sina is the familiar form of address used with family, friends, and minors. The distinction is still much more widely used and more rigid than in closely related Finnish language.
Similar to the French language vouvoyer, the verb teietama is used, and teie is used when addressing a (new) customer or a patient, or when talking to a person in his/her function. In hierarchical organization
s, like large businesses or armies, sina is used between members of a same rank/level while teie is used between members of different ranks. Sina (the verb sinatama is also used) is used with relatives, friends, when addressing children and with close colleagues. Borderline situations, such as distant relatives, young adults, customers in rental shops or new colleagues, sometimes still present difficulties.
provides numerous, often subtle means of T–V distinction:
The use of the second-person conjugation with the pronoun te (plural ti) is the most informal mode. As in many other European languages, it is used within families, among children, lovers, close friends, (nowadays often) among coworkers, and in some communities, suggesting an idea of brotherhood. Adults unilaterally address children this way, and it is the form used in addressing God and other Christian figures (such as Jesus Christ or the Blessed Virgin), animals, and objects or ideas. Sociologically, the use of this form is widening. Whereas traditionally the switch to te is often a symbolic milestone between people, sometimes sealed by drinking a glass of wine together ("pertu"), today people under the age of about thirty will often mutually adopt te automatically in informal situations. A notable example is the Internet: strangers meeting online use the informal forms of address virtually exclusively, regardless of age or status differences; even Ferenc Gyurcsány
as a Prime Minister in office encouraged people in his blog
to use te mutually when asking him. IKEA
(or rather, its Hungarian team) was noted and practically unique in its choice of this way of addressing people in Hungary in its brochures; reactions were mixed.
Nevertheless, formal forms of address are alive and well in Hungarian:
(cf. him/herself), so e.g. the sentence Megütötte magát? can have three meanings: "Did he hit himself?", "Did he hit you?" or "Did you hit yourself?". (For the second meaning, probably ön would be used to avoid ambiguity.) Ön (plural önök) is the formal, official and impersonal "you". It is the form used when people take part in a situation merely as representatives of social roles
, where personal acquaintance is not a factor. It is thus used in institutions, business, bureaucracy, advertisements, by broadcasters, by shopkeepers to their customers, and whenever one wishes to maintain one's distance. It is less typical of rural areas or small towns, more typical of cities. It's often capitalized in letters. Other pronouns are nowadays rare, restricted to rural, jocular, dialect, or old-fashioned speech. Such are, for instance, kend and kegyed.
There is a wide spectrum of third-person address that avoids the above pronouns entirely; preferring to substitute various combinations of the addressee’s names and/or titles. Thus, for instance, a university student might ask mit gondol X. tanár úr? ("What does Professor X. think?", meant for the addressee) rather than using the insufficiently formal maga or the overly impersonal ön. If the difference in rank is not to be emphasized, it is perfectly acceptable to use the addressed person's first name instead of a second-person pronoun, e.g. Megkérném arra Pétert, hogy… ("I'd like to ask [you,] Peter to…"). (Note that these are possible because the formal second-person conjugation of verbs is the same as the third-person conjugation.)
Finally, the auxiliary verb
tetszik (lit. "it pleases [you]") is an indirect alternative (or, perhaps, supplement) to direct address with the third or even second person. In terms of grammar, it can only be applied if the addressed person is mentioned in the nominative, otherwise it is replaced by forms with the name or maga. It is very polite (sometimes seen as over-polite) and not as formal as the Ön form. Children usually address adults outside their family this way. Adults may address more distant relatives, housekeeper
s and older persons using this form, and some men habitually address older or younger women this way (this is slightly old-fashioned).
It is important to keep in mind that formal conjugation doesn't automatically imply politeness or vice versa; these factors are independent of each other. For example, Mit parancsolsz? "What would you like to have?" (literally, "What do you command?") is in the informal conjugation, while it can be extremely polite, making it possible to express one's honour towards people one has previously established a friendly relationship with. On the other hand, Mit akar? "What do you want?" is expressed with the formal conjugation, nevertheless it may sound rude and aggressive; the formal conjugation does not soften this tone in any way.
Sociolinguistics
Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any and all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the way language is used, and the effects of language use on society...
, a T–V distinction is a contrast, within one language, between second-person
Grammatical person
Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...
pronoun
Pronoun
In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun , such as, in English, the words it and he...
s that are specialized for varying levels of politeness, social distance
Social distance
Social distance describes the distance between different groups of society and is opposed to locational distance. The notion includes all differences such as social class, race/ethnicity or sexuality, but also the fact that the different groups do not mix...
, courtesy, familiarity, or insult toward the addressee.
Languages (e.g., English) which have no syntactic
Syntax
In linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing phrases and sentences in natural languages....
T–V distinction, may have semantic
Semantics
Semantics is the study of meaning. It focuses on the relation between signifiers, such as words, phrases, signs and symbols, and what they stand for, their denotata....
analogues to convey the metioned attitudes towards the addressee, such as whether to address someone by first or last name, or whether to use "sir
Sir
Sir is an honorific used as a title , or as a courtesy title to address a man without using his given or family name in many English speaking cultures...
" / "ma'am" in US English.
History and usage
The expressions T-form (informal) and V-form (formal) were introduced by Brown and Gilman (1960), with reference to the initial letters of these pronouns in LatinLatin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
, tu and vos. In Latin, tu was originally the singular, and vos the plural, with no distinction for honorific or familiar. According to Brown and Gilman, usage of the plural to the Roman emperor
Roman Emperor
The Roman emperor was the ruler of the Roman State during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office although at any given time, a given title was associated with the emperor...
began in the fourth century AD. They mention the possibility that this was because there were often two or more emperors at that time as augusti, caesares
Caesar (title)
Caesar is a title of imperial character. It derives from the cognomen of Julius Caesar, the Roman dictator...
and other titles, and later separate rulers in Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
and Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, but also that "plurality is a very old and ubiquitous metaphor for power". This usage was extended to other powerful figures, such as Pope Gregory I
Pope Gregory I
Pope Gregory I , better known in English as Gregory the Great, was pope from 3 September 590 until his death...
(590–604). However, Brown and Gilman note that it was only between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries that the norms for the use of T- and V-forms crystallized. Less commonly, the use of the plural may be extended to other grammatical person
Grammatical person
Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...
, such as the "royal we" (majestic plural).
Brown and Gilman argued that the choice of form is governed by either relationships of 'power' and/or 'solidarity', depending on the culture of the speakers, showing that 'power' had been the dominant predictor of form in Europe until the twentieth century. Thus, it was quite normal for a powerful person to use a T-form but expect a V-form in return. However in the twentieth century the dynamic shifted in favour of solidarity, so that people would use T-forms with those they knew, and V-forms in service encounters, with reciprocal usage being the norm in both cases.
One other use of the distinction that occurs in some languages is the expression of "mock respect", essentially a humorous way of expressing disapproval, by the use of the formal form to address people with whom one would not normally use it, such as children or close friends.
Brown and Gilman's V-T Theory has been very influential, perhaps in part because its binary system is a convenient, easy-to-grasp concept. However, the V-T Theory does not provide an entirely satisfactory framework of interpretation as clearly shown in the case of modern English with its universal 'you' instead of a grammatical V-T binary system. Moving with the times, Manuela Cook's N-V-T Theory provides a dimension of Neutrality.
Modern English does not have a T–V pronoun distinction. In earlier versions of English, thou/thee was used as a T-form for singular second person, while ye/you marked the V-form. However, use of the thou forms became stigmatised and they disappeared from speech, leading to the situation where the original V-form, you, became the only second-person pronoun and thou and thee are considered archaic. To a modern English speaker unaware of the origin of the distinction, the use of thou (for example in prayer), originally a sign of intimacy, now has connotations of formality due to its archaic appearance.
The boundaries between formal and informal language differ from language to language, as well as within social groups of the speakers of a given language. In some circumstances, it is not unusual to call other people by first name and the respectful form, or last name and familiar form. For example, German teachers use the former construct with upper-secondary students, while Italian teachers typically use the latter (switching to a full V-form with university students). This can lead to constructions denoting an intermediate level of formality in T–V-distinct languages that sound awkward to English-speakers. For example, the catchphrase of "Be careful, Michael" from Knight Rider was usually dubbed
Dubbing (filmmaking)
Dubbing is the post-production process of recording and replacing voices on a motion picture or television soundtrack subsequent to the original shooting. The term most commonly refers to the substitution of the voices of the actors shown on the screen by those of different performers, who may be...
"Seien Sie vorsichtig, Michael" in German, implying both formality (use of Sie) and familiarity (use of first name).
The use of these forms calls for compensating translation of dialogue into English. For example, a character in a French film or novel saying "Tutoie-moi!" ("Use [the informal pronoun] tu when addressing me!") might be translated "Do not be so formal!"
Examples
In many languages, the respectful singular pronoun derives from a plural form. Some Romance languages have familiar forms derived from the Latin singular tu and respectful forms derived from Latin plural vos, sometimes via a circuitous route. Sometimes, singular V-form derives from a third person pronoun; in GermanGerman language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
-speaking and some Nordic
Nordic countries
The Nordic countries make up a region in Northern Europe and the North Atlantic which consists of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden and their associated territories, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland...
countries, it is the third person plural. Some languages have separate T and V forms for both singular and plural; others have the same form; others have a T–V distinction only in the singular.
Different languages distinguish pronoun uses in different ways. Even within languages, there are differences between groups (older people and people of higher status tending both to use and to expect more respectful language) and between various aspects of one language. For example, in Dutch, u is slowly falling into disuse in the plural, and thus one could sometimes address a group as jullie (which clearly expresses the plural) when one would address each member individually as u (which has the disadvantage of being ambiguous). In Latin American Spanish, the opposite change has occurred — having lost vosotros, Latin Americans address all groups as ustedes, even if the group is composed of friends whom they would call tú or vos
Voseo
Voseo is the use of the second person singular pronoun vos in many dialects of Spanish. In dialects that have it, it is used either instead of tú, or alongside it....
. In Standard Peninsular Spanish, however, vosotros (literally, "you others") is still regularly employed in familiar conversation. In some cases, V-forms are likely to be capitalized when written.
Following is a table of singular and plural versions of the second person plural and singular in many languages. Many of these do not demonstrate T–V distinction in the above sense of the "you" plural being used for "you" singular informal.
| second-person singular Grammatical number In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions .... familiar |
second-person singular respectful | second-person plural Plural In linguistics, plurality or [a] plural is a concept of quantity representing a value of more-than-one. Typically applied to nouns, a plural word or marker is used to distinguish a value other than the default quantity of a noun, which is typically one... familiar |
second-person plural respectful | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afrikaans Afrikaans Afrikaans is a West Germanic language, spoken natively in South Africa and Namibia. It is a daughter language of Dutch, originating in its 17th century dialects, collectively referred to as Cape Dutch .Afrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch; see , , , , , .Afrikaans was historically called Cape... |
jy /jou | u U (to God) |
julle | u | |||||
| Albanian Albanian language Albanian is an Indo-European language spoken by approximately 7.6 million people, primarily in Albania and Kosovo but also in other areas of the Balkans in which there is an Albanian population, including western Macedonia, southern Montenegro, southern Serbia and northwestern Greece... |
ti | ju | ju | ju | |||||
| Amharic Amharic language Amharic is a Semitic language spoken in Ethiopia. It is the second most-spoken Semitic language in the world, after Arabic, and the official working language of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. Thus, it has official status and is used nationwide. Amharic is also the official or working... |
(antä) (m) (anči) (f) |
() or () |
() | () or () |
|||||
| Arabic Arabic language Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book... |
أنت (anta, when addressing a man), أنتِ (anti, when addressing a woman) | antum; in some spoken varieties of Arabic Varieties of Arabic The Arabic language is a Semitic language characterized by a wide number of linguistic varieties within its five regional forms. The largest divisions occur between the spoken languages of different regions. The Arabic of North Africa, for example, is often incomprehensible to an Arabic speaker... , such as Egyptian Egyptian Arabic Egyptian Arabic is the language spoken by contemporary Egyptians.It is more commonly known locally as the Egyptian colloquial language or Egyptian dialect .... , terms such as ḥaḍretak (your grace) or siyadtak (your lordship) are used |
antum (when addressing men), antunna (when addressing women) | antum / antunna; in some spoken varieties of Arabic Varieties of Arabic The Arabic language is a Semitic language characterized by a wide number of linguistic varieties within its five regional forms. The largest divisions occur between the spoken languages of different regions. The Arabic of North Africa, for example, is often incomprehensible to an Arabic speaker... , such as Egyptian Egyptian Arabic Egyptian Arabic is the language spoken by contemporary Egyptians.It is more commonly known locally as the Egyptian colloquial language or Egyptian dialect .... , terms such as ḥaḍretkum or siyadetkum are used |
|||||
| Armenian Armenian language The Armenian language is an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenian people. It is the official language of the Republic of Armenia as well as in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The language is also widely spoken by Armenian communities in the Armenian diaspora... |
դու (du) Eastern dialect, դուն (tun) Western dialect | դուք (duk) Eastern (tuk) Western | դուք (duk) Eastern (tuk) Western | դուք (duk) Eastern (tuk) Western | |||||
| Azerbaijani (Azeri) Azerbaijani language Azerbaijani or Azeri or Torki is a language belonging to the Turkic language family, spoken in southwestern Asia by the Azerbaijani people, primarily in Azerbaijan and northwestern Iran... |
sən | siz | siz | siz, sometimes sizlər | |||||
| Basque Basque language Basque is the ancestral language of the Basque people, who inhabit the Basque Country, a region spanning an area in northeastern Spain and southwestern France. It is spoken by 25.7% of Basques in all territories... |
hi (very close), zu | zu, berori (very respectful) | zuek | zuek | |||||
| Bengali Bengali language Bengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script... |
tui (very informal) tumi |
apni | tora (very informal) tomra |
apnara | |||||
| Bosnian Bosnian language Bosnian is a South Slavic language, spoken by Bosniaks. As a standardized form of the Shtokavian dialect, it is one of the three official languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina.... |
ti | Vi | vi | vi | |||||
| Breton Breton language Breton is a Celtic language spoken in Brittany , France. Breton is a Brythonic language, descended from the Celtic British language brought from Great Britain to Armorica by migrating Britons during the Early Middle Ages. Like the other Brythonic languages, Welsh and Cornish, it is classified as... |
te | c'hwi | c'hwi | c'hwi | |||||
| Bulgarian Bulgarian language Bulgarian is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group.Bulgarian, along with the closely related Macedonian language, demonstrates several linguistic characteristics that set it apart from all other Slavic languages such as the elimination of case declension, the... |
(ti) | (Vie) | (vie) | (vie) | |||||
| Catalan Catalan language Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island... |
tu vós (only to elders) |
vostè | vosaltres | vostès | |||||
| Chinese (Mandarin) Standard Chinese Standard Chinese, or Modern Standard Chinese, also known as Mandarin or Putonghua, is the official language of the People's Republic of China and Republic of China , and is one of the four official languages of Singapore.... |
nǐ | nín | nǐmen | dàjiā but see below >- |
Croatian Croatian language Croatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries... |
ti | Vi | vi | vi |
| Czech Czech language Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century... |
ty | Vy | vy | Vy | |||||
| Danish Danish language Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language... |
du / dig | De / Dem | I / jer | De / Dem | |||||
| Dutch Dutch language Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second... |
jij /je (more in the Netherlands Netherlands The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders... ) or gij/ge (more in Flanders Flanders Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp... ) |
u (Capitalised when addressing God, or in very formal writing: U. Alternatively: Gij (to God)) | jullie | u | |||||
| English English language English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria... |
thou/thee (archaic) | you | you | you | |||||
| Esperanto Esperanto is the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Its name derives from Doktoro Esperanto , the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof published the first book detailing Esperanto, the Unua Libro, in 1887... |
ci (experimental use only), normally vi | vi | vi | vi | |||||
| Estonian Estonian language Estonian is the official language of Estonia, spoken by about 1.1 million people in Estonia and tens of thousands in various émigré communities... |
sina/sa | Teie | teie/te | Teie | |||||
| Faroese Faroese language Faroese , is an Insular Nordic language spoken by 48,000 people in the Faroe Islands and about 25,000 Faroese people in Denmark and elsewhere... |
tú / teg | tygum / tygum (restricted to official documents only) | tit / tykkum | tit / tykkum | |||||
| Filipino Filipino language This move has drawn much criticism from other regional groups.In 1987, a new constitution introduced many provisions for the language.Article XIV, Section 6, omits any mention of Tagalog as the basis for Filipino, and states that:... |
ka /ikaw | kayo | kayo | sila | |||||
| Finnish | sinä/sä | Te (compound verb forms with participle in singular) | te | Te | |||||
| French French language French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts... |
tu /toi /te | vous | vous | vous | |||||
| Frisian (West) West Frisian language West Frisian is a language spoken mostly in the province of Friesland in the north of the Netherlands. West Frisian is the name by which this language is usually known outside the Netherlands, to distinguish it from the closely related Frisian languages of Saterland Frisian and North Frisian,... |
dû/do | jo (Jo when addressing God) | jimme/jim | jimme/jim | |||||
| Gaelic (Scottish) Scottish Gaelic language Scottish Gaelic is a Celtic language native to Scotland. A member of the Goidelic branch of the Celtic languages, Scottish Gaelic, like Modern Irish and Manx, developed out of Middle Irish, and thus descends ultimately from Primitive Irish.... |
thu | sibh | sibh | sibh | |||||
| Galician Galician language Galician is a language of the Western Ibero-Romance branch, spoken in Galicia, an autonomous community located in northwestern Spain, where it is co-official with Castilian Spanish, as well as in border zones of the neighbouring territories of Asturias and Castile and León.Modern Galician and... |
tu, tí | vostede | vós | vostedes | |||||
| Georgian Georgian language Georgian is the native language of the Georgians and the official language of Georgia, a country in the Caucasus.Georgian is the primary language of about 4 million people in Georgia itself, and of another 500,000 abroad... |
შენ shen | თქვენ tkven | თქვენ tkven | თქვენ tkven | |||||
| German German language German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union.... |
du | Sie (and third person plural of the verb) Ihr (and second person plural; archaic) |
ihr | Sie (and third person plural of the verb) Ihr (and second person plural; archaic) |
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| Modern Greek Modern Greek Modern Greek refers to the varieties of the Greek language spoken in the modern era. The beginning of the "modern" period of the language is often symbolically assigned to the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453, even though that date marks no clear linguistic boundary and many characteristic... |
εσύ (esí) | εσείς (esís) | εσείς (esís) | εσείς (esís) | |||||
| Gujarati Gujarati language Gujarati is an Indo-Aryan language, and part of the greater Indo-European language family. It is derived from a language called Old Gujarati which is the ancestor language of the modern Gujarati and Rajasthani languages... |
tu | (formal) |
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| Hungarian Hungarian language Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe.... |
te | maga (formal) or Ön (official) | ti | maguk (formal) or Önök (official) | |||||
| Hindi Hindi Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi... |
tū (very informal) tum |
āp | tum log | āp log | |||||
| Icelandic Icelandic language Icelandic is a North Germanic language, the main language of Iceland. Its closest relative is Faroese.Icelandic is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic or Nordic branch of the Germanic languages. Historically, it was the westernmost of the Indo-European languages prior to the... |
þú / þig | þér / yður (archaic) | þið / ykkur | þér / yður (archaic) | |||||
| Ido Ido Ido is a constructed language created with the goal of becoming a universal second language for speakers of different linguistic backgrounds as a language easier to learn than ethnic languages... |
tu | vu | vi | vi | |||||
| Indonesian Indonesian language Indonesian is the official language of Indonesia. Indonesian is a normative form of the Riau Islands dialect of Malay, an Austronesian language which has been used as a lingua franca in the Indonesian archipelago for centuries.... |
kamu | Anda | kalian | Anda or sometimes Anda sekalian | |||||
| Interlingua Interlingua Interlingua is an international auxiliary language , developed between 1937 and 1951 by the International Auxiliary Language Association... |
tu | vos | vos | vos | |||||
| Italian Italian language Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia... |
tu | Lei (or lei; archaic form: Ella) voi (dated or Central and Southern Italian dialectal) |
voi |
voi Loro (or loro; becoming rare) |
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| Japanese Japanese language is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an... |
, , omae, kimi, anta (derogatory: , kisama, teme) (archaic: onushi) | — (directly addressing a person with an honorific suffix after his/her name or using his/her profession); anata (archaic, formal, to address someone below: , , nanji, sochi, sonata) |
, , omae-tachi, kimi-tachi, anta-tachi (archaic: onushi-ra) | , anata-tachi, anata-gata (archaic, formal, to address someone below: , , nanji-ra, sochi-domo, sonata-tachi) | |||||
| Javanese Javanese language Javanese language is the language of the Javanese people from the central and eastern parts of the island of Java, in Indonesia. In addition, there are also some pockets of Javanese speakers in the northern coast of western Java... |
kowe, awakmu | panjenengan, sampeyan | kowe kabeh | panjenengan sedanten | |||||
| Kannada Kannada language Kannada or , is a language spoken in India predominantly in the state of Karnataka. Kannada, whose native speakers are called Kannadigas and number roughly 50 million, is one of the 30 most spoken languages in the world... |
niinnu | niivu | niivu | niivu | |||||
| Kazakh Kazakh language Kazakh is a Turkic language which belongs to the Kipchak branch of the Turkic languages, closely related to Nogai and Karakalpak.... |
сен (sen) | сіз (siz) | сендер (sender) | сіздер (sizder) | |||||
| Korean Korean language Korean is the official language of the country Korea, in both South and North. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers worldwide. In the 15th century, a national writing... |
neo 너 | — (directly addressing a person); dangsin 당신 (addressing anonymous readers) |
neohui 너의 | — (yeoreobun 여러분) | |||||
| Kung-ekoka | a | i!a | i!a | i!a | |||||
| Kurdish Kurdish language Kurdish is a dialect continuum spoken by the Kurds in western Asia. It is part of the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian group of Indo-European languages.... (North), Kurmanji |
تو (tu) | هون (hûn), هنگۆ (hingo), تو (tu) | هون (hûn), هنگۆ (hingo) | هون (hûn), هنگۆ (hingo) | |||||
| Kurdish Kurdish language Kurdish is a dialect continuum spoken by the Kurds in western Asia. It is part of the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian group of Indo-European languages.... (South), Sorani |
تۆ (to) | ێوه (êwe), تۆ (to) | ێوه (êwe) | ێوه (êwe) | |||||
| Kyrgyz Kyrgyz language Kyrgyz or Kirgiz, also Kirghiz, Kyrghiz, Qyrghiz is a Turkic language and, together with Russian, an official language of Kyrgyzstan... |
сен (sen) | сиз (siz) | силер (siler) | сиздер (sizder) | |||||
| Ladino, see Spanish | tú | vos | vozótros | vozótros | |||||
| Latvian Latvian language Latvian is the official state language of Latvia. It is also sometimes referred to as Lettish. There are about 1.4 million native Latvian speakers in Latvia and about 150,000 abroad. The Latvian language has a relatively large number of non-native speakers, atypical for a small language... |
tu / Tu (addressing person in correspondence) | jūs / Jūs (addressing person in correspondence) | jūs | jūs | |||||
| Lithuanian Lithuanian language Lithuanian is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognized as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.96 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 170,000 abroad. Lithuanian is a Baltic language, closely related to Latvian, although they... |
tu | Ponas, Ponia, Jūs | jūs | Jūs | |||||
| Lombard | ti | vü; or lüü (male) or lée (female) | viòltar | viòltar; or vü; or lur | |||||
| Malay Malay language Malay is a major language of the Austronesian family. It is the official language of Malaysia , Indonesia , Brunei and Singapore... |
kamu (standard), engkau (regional Malay; common spoken short form is kau – when pronounced as "ko", is even more informal.), hang (northern dialect, but understood and accepted across Peninsula Malaysia), awak (is rude in all contexts except in very close relationships, e.g. friends [but not acquaintances]) | anda (polite/friendly formal; found in formal documents and in all formal contexts, e.g. advertisements. "Anda" is almost never encountered in spoken Malay; instead, most Malaysians would address a respected person by his title or name), kamu (impolite/unfriendly formal; also found in formal documents and in all formal contexts, where the intention is to convey a forceful tone in writing – often seen in lawsuit Lawsuit A lawsuit or "suit in law" is a civil action brought in a court of law in which a plaintiff, a party who claims to have incurred loss as a result of a defendant's actions, demands a legal or equitable remedy. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint... s and summons Summons Legally, a summons is a legal document issued by a court or by an administrative agency of government for various purposes.-Judicial summons:... es). |
kau orang (when pronounced as "ko'rang" [equivalent to "you all" in parts of the U.S.] is slang and more informal), kau semua, hangpa (northern dialect), kalian (archaic) | anda, kalian (archaic) | |||||
| Malayalam Malayalam language Malayalam , is one of the four major Dravidian languages of southern India. It is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India with official language status in the state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry. It is spoken by 35.9 million people... |
nee | thaankal | ningal | ningal | |||||
| Macedonian Macedonian language Macedonian is a South Slavic language spoken as a first language by approximately 2–3 million people principally in the region of Macedonia but also in the Macedonian diaspora... |
ти (ti) | Вие (Vie) | вие (vie) | вие (vie) | |||||
| Maltese Maltese language Maltese is the national language of Malta, and a co-official language of the country alongside English,while also serving as an official language of the European Union, the only Semitic language so distinguished. Maltese is descended from Siculo-Arabic... |
int, inti | int, inti | intom | intom | |||||
| Marathi Marathi language Marathi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people of western and central India. It is the official language of the state of Maharashtra. There are over 68 million fluent speakers worldwide. Marathi has the fourth largest number of native speakers in India and is the fifteenth most... |
tū | (formal), आपण (official) |
(formal), आपण (official) |
(formal), आपण (official) |
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| Mongolian Mongolian language The Mongolian language is the official language of Mongolia and the best-known member of the Mongolic language family. The number of speakers across all its dialects may be 5.2 million, including the vast majority of the residents of Mongolia and many of the Mongolian residents of the Inner... |
чи (chi) | та (ta) | та нар (ta nar) | та нар (ta nar) | |||||
| Nepali Nepali language Nepali or Nepalese is a language in the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family.It is the official language and de facto lingua franca of Nepal and is also spoken in Bhutan, parts of India and parts of Myanmar... |
तँ, तिमी (tã, timi) | तपाईं (tapāī̃) | तिमी(-हरू) (timi[-harū]) | तपाईं(-हरू) (tapāī̃[-harū]) | |||||
| Norwegian (bokmål) | du / deg | De / Dem (archaic) | dere / dere | De / Dem (archaic) | |||||
| Norwegian (nynorsk) Nynorsk Nynorsk or New Norwegian is one of two official written standards for the Norwegian language, the other being Bokmål. The standard language was created by Ivar Aasen during the mid-19th century, to provide a Norwegian alternative to the Danish language which was commonly written in Norway at the... |
du / deg | De / Dykk (archaic) | de / dykk | De / Dykk (archaic) | |||||
| Oriya Oriya language Oriya , officially Odia from November, 2011, is an Indian language, belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family. It is mainly spoken in the Indian states of Orissa and West Bengal... |
tu/ tume | aapano | tumemane | aapanomane | |||||
| Persian Persian language Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence... |
to | shomâ | shomâ | shomâ | |||||
| Polish Polish language Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries... |
ty | pani (to a woman) pan (to a man) (verbs following any of the above addresses are in the 3rd person singular form) In the early period of the communist rule History of Poland (1945–1989) The history of Poland from 1945 to 1989 spans the period of Soviet Communist dominance imposed after the end of World War II over the People's Republic of Poland... , a practice of using the second-person plural form wy as a formal way of referring to a single person was introduced (a calque Calque In linguistics, a calque or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal, word-for-word or root-for-root translation.-Calque:... from Russian) but it did not catch on. |
wy | państwo (general) panie (to women) panowie (to men) (verbs following any of the above addresses are in the 3rd person plural form, although in many cases for państwo (general) the 2nd person plural form is also possible). |
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| Portuguese Portuguese language Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095... in Europe Portugal Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the... , in Africa and in Asia Portuguese in Asia and Oceania Compared to Africa, the Americas and Europe, the presence of the Portuguese language in Asia and Oceania is quite small. The commercial empire of the Portuguese extended throughout Southeast Asia.-Geographic distribution:... . |
tu | você; o senhor / a senhora, dona | vocês | os senhores / as senhoras | |||||
| Portuguese Portuguese language Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095... in the northern, central and southeastern part of Brazil. |
você (and "te", oblique form of "tu" combined with "você", for a more familiar tone) | o senhor/ a senhora; seu (from senhor) / dona | vocês | os senhores / as senhoras | |||||
| Portuguese Portuguese language Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095... in the southern and northeastern Brazil, in the city of Santos and part of Rio de Janeiro, also in Uruguay Riverense Portuñol language The Riverense Portuñol/Portunhol, also known as Fronterizo/Fronteiriço or just Portuñol/Portunhol, is a mixed language formed from Portuguese and Spanish. It is spoken on the border between Uruguay and Brazil, and more specifically in the region of the twin cities of Rivera and Santana do... . |
tu (however almost always conjugated as "você") | você (equalizing, less pollite) o senhor, a senhora (to a superior, more pollite) |
vocês | os senhores / as senhoras | |||||
| Punjabi Punjabi language Punjabi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by inhabitants of the historical Punjab region . For Sikhs, the Punjabi language stands as the official language in which all ceremonies take place. In Pakistan, Punjabi is the most widely spoken language... (Punjab) |
ਤੂੰ tū̃ | ਤੁਸੀਂ tusī̃ | ਤੁਸੀਂ tusī̃ | ਤੁਸੀਂ tusī̃ | |||||
| Romanian Romanian language Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova... |
tu | dumneata (less formal) / matale, mata (regional) / dumneavoastră (formal) |
voi | dumneavoastră / domniile voastre (archaic) | |||||
| Russian Russian language Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics... |
(ty) | (vy) / (Vy) (addressing officials in letters etc.) | (vy) | (vy) | |||||
| Rusyn Rusyn language Rusyn , also known in English as Ruthenian, is an East Slavic language variety spoken by the Rusyns of Central Europe. Some linguists treat it as a distinct language and it has its own ISO 639-3 code; others treat it as a dialect of Ukrainian... |
(tŷ) | (Vŷ) | (vŷ) | (vŷ) | |||||
| Scots Modern Scots Modern Scots describes the varieties of Scots traditionally spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster from 1700.Throughout its history, Modern Scots has been undergoing a process of language attrition, whereby successive generations of speakers have adopted more and more features from... |
thoo, mostly replaced by ye [ðuː], Southern [ðʌu], Shetland Shetlandic Shetlandic, usually referred to as Shetland by native speakers, is spoken in the Shetland Islands north of mainland Scotland and is, like Orcadian, a dialect of Insular Scots... [duː] |
ye, you | ye, you | ye, you | |||||
| Serbian Serbian language Serbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries.... |
(ti) | (Vi) | (vi) | (vi) | |||||
| Slovak Slovak language Slovak , is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Slavic languages .Slovak is the official language of Slovakia, where it is spoken by 5 million people... |
ty | Vy | vy | vy | |||||
| Slovene | ti | vi Vi (protocolar) |
vidva (dual Dual (grammatical number) Dual is a grammatical number that some languages use in addition to singular and plural. When a noun or pronoun appears in dual form, it is interpreted as referring to precisely two of the entities identified by the noun or pronoun... ) vidve or vedve (dual – when addressing two women); vi (plural) ve (plural – when addressing only women) |
vi (dual and plural) | |||||
| Sorbian (Lower) | ty | Wy | wej (dual), wy (plural) | wy | |||||
| Sorbian (Upper) | ty | Wy | wój (dual), wy (plural) | wy | |||||
| Somali Somali language The Somali language is a member of the East Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family. Its nearest relatives are Afar and Oromo. Somali is the best documented of the Cushitic languages, with academic studies beginning before 1900.... |
adi | adiga | idinka | idinka | |||||
| Spanish Spanish language Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the... in Peninsular Spain, Equatorial Guinea Equatorial Guinea Equatorial Guinea, officially the Republic of Equatorial Guinea where the capital Malabo is situated.Annobón is the southernmost island of Equatorial Guinea and is situated just south of the equator. Bioko island is the northernmost point of Equatorial Guinea. Between the two islands and to the... , Morocco Morocco Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara... |
tú | usted (formerly or literary vos, usía and vuecencia/vuecelencia among others) | vosotros (masc.) vosotras (fem.) | ustedes | |||||
| Spanish Spanish language Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the... in some parts of Andalusia Andalusia Andalusia is the most populous and the second largest in area of the autonomous communities of Spain. The Andalusian autonomous community is officially recognised as a nationality of Spain. The territory is divided into eight provinces: Huelva, Seville, Cádiz, Córdoba, Málaga, Jaén, Granada and... and in the Canary Islands Canary Islands The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union... |
tú | usted | ustedes (in Andalusia sometimes it is heard an altered system: e.g.: ustedes estáis; the vosotros/as pronouns are increasingly popular and replacing this one) | ustedes | |||||
| Spanish Spanish language Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the... of most of the Americas |
tú | usted Note: in Cuba, tú is generally used instead, even for someone one has just met. |
ustedes | ustedes (literary vosotros, vosotras, in poetry Poetry Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning... , anthem Anthem The term anthem means either a specific form of Anglican church music , or more generally, a song of celebration, usually acting as a symbol for a distinct group of people, as in the term "national anthem" or "sports anthem".-Etymology:The word is derived from the Greek via Old English , a word... s...) |
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| Spanish Spanish language Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the... in parts of the Americas, mainly in the Southern Cone and Central America |
vos | usted | ustedes | ustedes (literary vosotros, vosotras, in poetry Poetry Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning... , anthem Anthem The term anthem means either a specific form of Anglican church music , or more generally, a song of celebration, usually acting as a symbol for a distinct group of people, as in the term "national anthem" or "sports anthem".-Etymology:The word is derived from the Greek via Old English , a word... s...) |
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| Spanish Spanish language Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the... in Costa Rica and in parts of Colombia |
usted ('el otro usted': for informal, horizontal communication) | usted | ustedes | ustedes (literary vosotros, vosotras, in poetry Poetry Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning... , anthem Anthem The term anthem means either a specific form of Anglican church music , or more generally, a song of celebration, usually acting as a symbol for a distinct group of people, as in the term "national anthem" or "sports anthem".-Etymology:The word is derived from the Greek via Old English , a word... s...) |
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| Swedish Swedish language Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish... |
du | ni or Ni (rarely used) | ni | ni or Ni (rarely used) | |||||
| Tagalog Tagalog language Tagalog is an Austronesian language spoken as a first language by a third of the population of the Philippines and as a second language by most of the rest. It is the first language of the Philippine region IV and of Metro Manila... |
ikáw ka (postpositive only) |
kayó | kayó | kayó | |||||
| Tajik Tajik language Tajik, Tajik Persian, or Tajiki, is a variety of modern Persian spoken in Central Asia. Historically Tajiks called their language zabani farsī , meaning Persian language in English; the term zabani tajikī, or Tajik language, was introduced in the 20th century by the Soviets... |
(tu) | (Shumo) | (shumo) | (shumo) or (shumoyon)(the latter is used in Spoken Tajik only) | |||||
| Tamil Tamil language Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore... |
(née) | (neengal) | (neengal) | (neengal) | |||||
| Telugu Telugu language Telugu is a Central Dravidian language primarily spoken in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India, where it is an official language. It is also spoken in the neighbouring states of Chattisgarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa and Tamil Nadu... |
నువ్వు (nuvvu) | మీరు (meeru) | మీరు (meeru) | మీరు (meeru) | |||||
| Turkish Turkish language Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,... |
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| Ubykh Ubykh language Ubykh or Ubyx is an extinct language of the Northwestern Caucasian group, spoken by the Ubykh people... |
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| Ukrainian Ukrainian language Ukrainian is a language of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages. It is the official state language of Ukraine. Written Ukrainian uses a variant of the Cyrillic alphabet.... |
(ty) | (vy) / (Vy) (addressing officials in letters etc.) | (vy) | (vy) | |||||
| Urdu Urdu Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an... |
tū (very informal) tum |
āp | tum log | āp log | |||||
| Uyghur Uyghur language Uyghur , formerly known as Eastern Turk, is a Turkic language with 8 to 11 million speakers, spoken primarily by the Uyghur people in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of Western China. Significant communities of Uyghur-speakers are located in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and various other... |
سەن sen | سىز siz or سىلى sili | سىلەر siler | سىزلەرsizler | |||||
| Welsh Welsh language Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa... |
ti or chdi | chi or chwi | chi or chwi | chi or chwi | |||||
| Yiddish | דו (du) | איר (ir) | איר (ir) עץ (ets) (regional) |
איר (ir) |
Dutch speaker (as identified by his or her accent).
- In Walloon, the use of which tends, in any case, to be restricted mostly to "familiar" contexts, vos (=vous) is the general usage and is considered informal and friendly. Ti (=tu), on the other hand, is considered vulgar, and its use can be taken as an expression of an aggressive attitude towards the person addressed. This influence from Walloon affects the usage of tu and vous in the French spoken in Belgium, though more so among people accustomed to using Walloon as their everyday language (a tiny minority, mostly in the countryside). The influence of Standard French, particularly as exercised through the mass mediaMass mediaMass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
, is eroding this particularity amongst younger French-speakers.
North American French
North American dialects of French
Canadian French
Canadian French is an umbrella term referring to the varieties of French spoken in Canada. French is the mother tongue of nearly seven million Canadians, a figure constituting roughly 22% of the national population. At the federal level it has co-official status alongside English...
, including Quebec French
Quebec French
Quebec French , or Québécois French, is the predominant variety of the French language in Canada, in its formal and informal registers. Quebec French is used in everyday communication, as well as in education, the media, and government....
and Acadian French
Acadian French
Acadian French , is a regionalized dialect of Canadian French. It is spoken by the francophone population of the Canadian province of New Brunswick, by small minorities in areas in the Gaspé region of eastern Quebec, by small groups of francophones in Prince Edward Island, in several tiny pockets...
as well as Louisiana Cajun
Cajun French
Cajun French is a variety or dialects of the French language spoken primarily in Louisiana, specifically in the southern and southwestern parishes....
and Creole
Louisiana Creole French
Louisiana Creole is a French Creole language spoken by the Louisiana Creole people of the state of Louisiana. The language consists of elements of French, Spanish, African, and Native American roots.-Geography:...
French, permit and expect a far broader usage of the familiar tu than in Standard French
Standard French
Standard French is an unofficial term for a standard variety of the French language...
. There are still circumstances in which it is appropriate to say vous: in a formal interview (notably for a job) or when addressing people of very high rank (such as judges or prime ministers), senior citizens, customers or new acquaintances in a formal setting. As acquaintances become familiar with one another, they may find vous to be unnecessarily formal and may agree to return to the tu with which they are generally more comfortable.
For a number of Francophones in Canada, vous sounds stilted or snobbish, and archaic. Tu is by no means restricted to intimates or social inferiors. There is however an important minority of people, often those who call for a use of standard French in Quebec, who prefer to be addressed as vous. At Radio-Canada (the public broadcaster, often considered as establishing the normative objectives of standard French in Canada), the use of vous is widespread even among colleagues.
Catalan
CatalanCatalan language
Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...
uses the singular pronouns tu (informal) and vostè (formal), while vosaltres (informal) and vostès (formal) are used to refer to two or more addressees. The form vós, used instead of tu to address someone respectfully, follows the same concordance rules as the French vous (verbs in second person plural, adjectives in singular), and vostè follows the same concordance rules as the Spanish usted (verbs in 3rd person). Vostè originated from vostra mercè as a calque
Calque
In linguistics, a calque or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal, word-for-word or root-for-root translation.-Calque:...
from Spanish, and replaced the original Catalan form vós.
In some dialects of Catalan, vós is no longer used. Other dialects have a three-way distinction tu/vós/vostè, where vós is used as a respectful form for elders and respected friends, and vostè for foreigners and people whom one does not know well. Vostè is more distant than vós.
Spanish
In SpanishSpanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, the respectful form requires verbs to be conjugated in the third person singular; this is because the form usted evolved from the title vuestra merced (your grace) which naturally took the third person like the Portuguese você. In some cases, if a younger person speaks to someone who is relatively older, the younger of the pair will address the elder with usted, perhaps combining it with Don
Don (honorific)
Don, from Latin dominus, is an honorific in Spanish , Portuguese , and Italian . The female equivalent is Doña , Dona , and Donna , abbreviated "Dª" or simply "D."-Usage:...
. However, an altered form of vuestra merced, su merced (which in colloquial language has been phonetically reduced to sumercé), has survived in the rural areas located in the plateau
Plateau
In geology and earth science, a plateau , also called a high plain or tableland, is an area of highland, usually consisting of relatively flat terrain. A highly eroded plateau is called a dissected plateau...
that surrounds Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
's capital city, Bogotá
Bogotá
Bogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...
.
In the plural, Spanish presents the T-form vosotros and the V-form ustedes , which use verbs in the second and third person plural, respectively. However, only mainland Spain and the Balearic Islands
Balearic Islands
The Balearic Islands are an archipelago of Spain in the western Mediterranean Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula.The four largest islands are: Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza and Formentera. The archipelago forms an autonomous community and a province of Spain with Palma as the capital...
have retained this distinction, while in the Canaries
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...
and Latin America, ustedes is almost the only form used in all contexts. In Western Andalusia
Andalusia
Andalusia is the most populous and the second largest in area of the autonomous communities of Spain. The Andalusian autonomous community is officially recognised as a nationality of Spain. The territory is divided into eight provinces: Huelva, Seville, Cádiz, Córdoba, Málaga, Jaén, Granada and...
and parts of Extremadura
Extremadura
Extremadura is an autonomous community of western Spain whose capital city is Mérida. Its component provinces are Cáceres and Badajoz. It is bordered by Portugal to the west...
, ustedes is frequently used as well, but combined with the verb forms corresponding to vosotros in standard European Spanish.
T–V merge
In just but a few dialects, close friends are still referred to as tú, and venerable old women are usted, but there is a wide grey area in the middle. Just within Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
is tu widely used. All of Latin America uses vos instead.
T–V plural split
Traditionally in some parts of Andalusia
Andalusia
Andalusia is the most populous and the second largest in area of the autonomous communities of Spain. The Andalusian autonomous community is officially recognised as a nationality of Spain. The territory is divided into eight provinces: Huelva, Seville, Cádiz, Córdoba, Málaga, Jaén, Granada and...
and in all of the Canary Islands
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...
the second person plural pronoun has been ustedes both for respectful and familiar address. However this system is being replaced by the T–V distinction of peninsular Spain, i.e. vosotros and vosotras are increasingly being used for familiar address.
Vos and tú
In the Rioplatense
Rioplatense Spanish
Rioplatense Spanish or River Plate Spanish is a dialectal variant of the Spanish language spoken mainly in the areas in and around the Río de la Plata basin of Argentina and Uruguay, and also in Rio Grande do Sul, although features of the dialect are shared with the varieties of Spanish spoken...
Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
variant used in most of Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
and Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
the T-form is vos; in other parts, for example in Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
and Central America
Central America
Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...
, vos is used in the spoken language and tú in print or formal contexts (although most formal contexts call for the respectful V-form, usted). The use of tú as the preferred T-form has its highest prevalence in Spain, as well as Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
and Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
.
The history behind tú-vos-usted is that for a time all three forms existed in Spain including during the colonization of the Americas
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
. In most of Spain the vos form died out and is now largely regarded as an archaic expression and this attitude has been adopted in most of Mexico, Peru, and other countries.
European Portuguese
In European Portuguese
European Portuguese
European Portuguese refers to the variety of Portuguese spoken in continental Portugal, as well as the Azores and Madeira islands...
(as well as in Africa and Asia), tu (singular "you") is commonly used as the familiar addressing pronoun, while você is a general form of address; vocês (plural both of "tu" and "você") is used for both familiar and general. The forms o senhor and a senhora (plurals os senhores and as senhoras) are used for more formal situations (roughly equivalent to "Mr/Sir" and "Mrs/Madam".) Similarly to some Romance languages (e.g. Italian), "tu" can be omitted because the verb ending provides the necessary information. Not so much so with "você" or "o senhor" / "a senhora" because the verb ending is the same as for the third person (historically, você derives from vossa mercê ("your mercy" or "your grace") via the intermediate forms vossemecê and vosmecê). The second person plural pronoun vós, from Latin vos, is archaic in most of the Portuguese-speaking world, but can be heard in liturgy and has a limited regional use.
Brazilian Portuguese
In Brazilian Portuguese
Brazilian Portuguese
Brazilian Portuguese is a group of Portuguese dialects written and spoken by most of the 190 million inhabitants of Brazil and by a few million Brazilian emigrants, mainly in the United States, United Kingdom, Portugal, Canada, Japan and Paraguay....
, você and vocês (singular and plural "you", respectively) are used informally, while o senhor and a senhora ("Mr"/"Sir" and "Mrs"/"Madam", plurals os senhores and as senhoras) are used in formal speech.
In many parts of the country (the state of Rio Grande do Sul
Rio Grande do Sul
Rio Grande do Sul is the southernmost state in Brazil, and the state with the fifth highest Human Development Index in the country. In this state is located the southernmost city in the country, Chuí, on the border with Uruguay. In the region of Bento Gonçalves and Caxias do Sul, the largest wine...
, some parts of the City of Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
, and the northern and northeastern states and in the City of Santos (São Paulo)
Santos (São Paulo)
-Sister cities: Shimonoseki, Japan Nagasaki, Japan Funchal, Portugal Trieste, Italy Coimbra, Portugal Ansião, Portugal Arouca, Portugal Ushuaia, Argentina Havana, Cuba Taizhou. China Ningbo. China Constanţa, Romania Ulsan, South Korea Colón, Panama* Cadiz, Spain...
) tu (singular "you" or simply "thou") is used informally, but the plural form is always vocês. However, in colloquial conversation, the pronoun tu is commonly used with the verb conjugated as "você" (third-person singular).
Italian
In ItalianItalian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
the formal second-person singular pronoun is Lei which means "she", used with the third-person singular of the verb, as opposed to the informal tu, used with the second-person singular. For the background to the use of "she" as a polite pronoun, see the section "History" below.
It is also possible to use Ella as a very polite alternative, but this is perceived as archaic, since in spoken Italian the nominative forms of the personal pronouns egli ("he"), essi/esse ("they") and ella ("she") have fallen out of common use, being replaced by the accusative forms lui ("him"), loro ("them") and lei ("her").
Lei may be capitalized as a sign of respect, particularly in administrative or business correspondence; if the pronoun is capitalized, so are all its forms, including the enclitics: "...vorrei incontrarLa per parlarGliene" ("...I should like to meet you to talk to you about this").
Lei is nowadays generally concorded
Agreement (linguistics)
In languages, agreement or concord is a form of cross-reference between different parts of a sentence or phrase. Agreement happens when a word changes form depending on the other words to which it relates....
with the gender of the addressee; it might actually not be present in sentences as Italian is not subject-compulsory, and is then understood by the verb being conjugated in the third person.
- "Have you ever been in Rome?"
The polite plural form Loro ("they"), followed by a verb in the third-person plural, is rarely used nowadays. Voi ("you", plural) is normally used both in informal and formal contexts when addressing more than one person. A situation where Loro can still be heard is in restaurants, because many waiters still use this form to address customers. A waiter might even use as a more formal alternative to the pronoun Lei the terms il signore/la signora (the gentleman/the lady), and for the pronoun Loro the corresponding plurals i signori/le signore.
- "What do you [plural] wish to eat?"
In administrative correspondence and on very formal invitations, la S.V. may be written instead of the pronoun Lei: "La S.V. è invitata...". The abbreviation stands for la Signoria Vostra "Your Lordship/Ladyship", which is the historical basis for the use of the third-person feminine pronoun (see also below).
Lei is normally used in formal settings, or with strangers, and it is used reciprocally between adults: the usage may not be reciprocal when young people address older strangers or otherwise respected people. Students are addressed with tu by their teachers until the end of high school with few exceptions, and usually with lei in universities. Students might use tu with their teachers in elementary school, but switch to lei from middle school.
Currently, people tend to address strangers of their own age using the informal tu until about thirty years of age. Tu is also the pronoun of first choice to address strangers on the Internet. In some professional circles (notably among journalists and lawyers), the tu-form is used immediately even on first meeting, as a sign of recognition of a colleague's status as a member of the same profession. In written correspondence, however, the pronoun will usually be capitalized (Tu) to express also respect towards somebody who is not a close friend.
Voi ("you", plural) may be used by some speakers instead of lei, especially in Southern Italy, but it sounds old-fashioned. When it is addressed respectfully to one person, the pronoun voi is used with singular adjectives and participles, concorded with the gender of the addressee, although the verbs are still in the second-person plural form; as with lei, it can be capitalized in writing. Some people might see this use of voi as reminiscent of the Fascist regime
Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)
The Kingdom of Italy was a state forged in 1861 by the unification of Italy under the influence of the Kingdom of Sardinia, which was its legal predecessor state...
, since it imposed the use of voi instead of lei (see below); but the pronoun had been traditional for centuries, and was used for example by children to address parents, as it was less formal than lei. Voi can be found in instruction booklets, where it is more common than tu, lei or impersonal constructions, and sometimes in advertisements (together with tu, while lei would sound too distant); but in these settings it is often intended as a plural pronoun rather than a polite form.
History
At the beginning of its history, in the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
, the Italian language had a tu/voi distinction of formality, as with other Romance languages
Romance languages
The Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family, more precisely of the Italic languages subfamily, comprising all the languages that descend from Vulgar Latin, the language of ancient Rome...
; in his Divine Comedy (begun in 1307), Dante
Dante Alighieri
Durante degli Alighieri, mononymously referred to as Dante , was an Italian poet, prose writer, literary theorist, moral philosopher, and political thinker. He is best known for the monumental epic poem La commedia, later named La divina commedia ...
normally uses tu when talking to the people he meets, but addresses them with voi when he means to show particular respect, for example to his former teacher: "Siete voi qui, ser Brunetto?" ("Are you here, sir Brunetto?").
During the Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
the use of Lei as a polite pronoun began, and subsequently spread with some influence from Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
; the origin of this usage is due to expressions as "Your Lordship/Eminence/Majesty/Holiness/...", where all of these nouns were feminine in gender (Vostra Signoria/Eminenza/Maestà/Santità/...) and referred to in the third-person singular.
For a few centuries (possibly from the 16th century to the first half of the 20th century) there was a three-pronoun system in use, with tu/voi/lei employed with a growing degree of formality; this was very well exemplified in Manzoni
Alessandro Manzoni
Alessandro Francesco Tommaso Manzoni was an Italian poet and novelist.He is famous for the novel The Betrothed , generally ranked among the masterpieces of world literature...
's novel The Betrothed (written in 1840–42 and set in 1628–30), where the characters talk using all three pronouns: the usage was often not reciprocal, with several combinations based on age and social status.
In 1938, under Fascist
Italian Fascism
Italian Fascism also known as Fascism with a capital "F" refers to the original fascist ideology in Italy. This ideology is associated with the National Fascist Party which under Benito Mussolini ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 until 1943, the Republican Fascist Party which ruled the Italian...
rule, the use of lei as a polite pronoun was banned on nationalistic
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
or puristic
Linguistic purism
Linguistic purism or linguistic protectionism is the practice of defining one variety of a language as being purer than other varieties. The ideal of purity is often opposed in reference to a perceived decline from an "ideal past" or an unwanted similarity with other languages, but sometimes simply...
grounds, since the use of voi was thought of as "more Italian": the ban lasted only for a few years, until the end of World War II, and left little trace. In some parts of Italy, particularly in Southern Italy, voi had always been preferred as the polite form and continued to be used regionally, while lei definitely prevailed as the only standard V-form.
Romanian
RomanianRomanian language
Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
dumneavoastră when used for the second-person singular formal takes plural verbs but singular adjectives, similar to French vous. It is used roughly in the same manner as in Continental French and shows no signs of disappearing. It is also used as a more formal voi. It originates from domnia voastră – your lordship. As happens with all subject pronouns, dumneavoastră is often omitted from sentences, its use being implied by verbs in the second person plural form.
The form dumneata (originating from domnia ta – thy lordship) is less distant than dumneavoastră and somewhat midway between tu and dumneavoastră. The verb is conjugated, as for tu, in the second person singular form. Older people towards younger people and peers favor Dumneata. Its use is gradually declining.
A more colloquial form of dumneata is mata or even matale or tălică. It is more familiar than tu and is used only in some regions of Romania. It is used only with immediate family members, and is spelled and pronounced the same in all cases, similar to dumneavoastră. It is conjugated in the second-person singular, like tu.
Ancient and Hellenistic or Koine Greek
In Ancient GreekAncient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
, sý (σύ) was the singular, and hymeis (ὑμεῖς) the plural, with no distinction for honorific or familiar. Paul
Paul of Tarsus
Paul the Apostle , also known as Saul of Tarsus, is described in the Christian New Testament as one of the most influential early Christian missionaries, with the writings ascribed to him by the church forming a considerable portion of the New Testament...
addresses King Agrippa II
Agrippa II
Agrippa II , son of Agrippa I, and like him originally named Marcus Julius Agrippa, was the seventh and last king of the family of Herod the Great, thus last of the Herodians. He was the brother of Berenice, Mariamne, and Drusilla...
as sý (Acts
Acts of the Apostles
The Acts of the Apostles , usually referred to simply as Acts, is the fifth book of the New Testament; Acts outlines the history of the Apostolic Age...
26:2).
Later, hymeís and hēmeís (ἡμεῖς) ("we") became too close in pronunciation, and a new plural seís or eseís (σεις/εσείς) was invented, the initial e (ε) being a euphonic
Euphony
Phonaesthetics is the claim or study of inherent pleasantness or beauty or unpleasantness of the sound of certain words and sentences. Poetry is considered euphonic, as is well-crafted literary prose...
prefix that was also extended to the singular (sý/esý).
Modern Greek
In Modern Greek, εσείς (eseís, second person plural) with second person plural verb conjugation is used as the formal counterpart of εσύ (esý, second person singular) when talking to strangers and elders, although in everyday life it is common to speak to strangers of your age or younger using the singular pronoun. In addition, the informal second person singular is used even with older people you are acquainted with, depending on the level of mutual familiarity.Since the formal εσείς (eseís) starts getting less common outside schools and workplaces, many people often do not know which form to use (because using a formal version might sound too snobbish even to an elder and using the informal version might sound inappropriate to some strangers) and thus prefer to replace verbs with nouns (avoiding the dilemma) until enough information on the counterpart's intentions is gathered in order to choose between formal or informal second person pronoun and verb conjugation. A good rule of thumb is that singular accompanies first names and plural accompanies surnames with title (Mr, Mrs, etc.). Exceptions are rare, for example younger schoolchildren may address their teacher in the plural, title and first name, or an officer may address a soldier in the singular and surname. The faux pas
Faux pas
A faux pas is a violation of accepted social norms . Faux pas vary widely from culture to culture, and what is considered good manners in one culture can be considered a faux pas in another...
sequence singular-title-surname can often indicate lack of education, of good manners, or of both.
The modern social custom when using the Greek language
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
in Greece is to ask the other person "may we speak in the singular?" in which the other person is expected to answer "yes" and afterwards the discussion continues using the informal εσύ (esý); it is unthinkable for the other person to answer "no" or show preference for plural forms, and for this reason one should not even ask this question to a person of high status, such as a professional. Therefore, asking this question can itself be considered a form of disrespect in some social situations. Likewise, not asking this question and simply using the singular without prior explicit or implicit agreement would also be considered disrespectful in various social contingencies. In other cases, even using the formal plural (without a question) could also be considered offensive. A person being inappropriately addressed in the singular will often indicate their displeasure by insisting on responding in the plural, in a display of irony that may or may not be evident to the other party. A similar social custom exists with the words κύριε (Mr
MR
MR, Mr, mr, or mR may refer to:*Mr. an honorific title of menPlaces:* Morocco country code * Martinique country code...
/Sir
Sir
Sir is an honorific used as a title , or as a courtesy title to address a man without using his given or family name in many English speaking cultures...
) and κυρία (Mrs
MRS
MRS can refer to:* Magnetic resonance spectroscopy* Mandibular repositioning splint* Marginal rate of substitution, in economics* Marseille Provence Airport, IATA airport code* Materials Research Society* Melbourne Rectangular Stadium...
/Madam
Madam
Madam, or madame, is a polite title used for women which, in English, is the equivalent of Mrs. or Ms., and is often found abbreviated as "ma'am", and less frequently as "ma'm". It is derived from the French madame, which means "my lady", the feminine form of lord; the plural of ma dame in this...
) which can show both respect and a form of "mock respect" which essentially communicates disapproval, often depending on the voice intonation and the social situation. Overall, the distinction between formal and informal forms of address and when to use each can be quite subtle and not easily discernible by a non-native speaker.
Scottish Gaelic
In Scottish GaelicScottish Gaelic language
Scottish Gaelic is a Celtic language native to Scotland. A member of the Goidelic branch of the Celtic languages, Scottish Gaelic, like Modern Irish and Manx, developed out of Middle Irish, and thus descends ultimately from Primitive Irish....
, the informal form of the second-person singular is thu/tu (emphatic: thusa/tusa), used when addressing a person the speaker knows well, or when addressing a person younger or relatively the same age as the speaker. When addressing a superior, an elder, or a stranger, or in conducting business, the form sibh (emphatic: sibhse) is used. (Sibh is also the second person plural). This distinction carries over into prepositional pronouns: for instance, agad and agaibh (at you), riut and ruibh (with you), umad and umaibh (about you), etc., and into possessive pronoun
Possessive pronoun
A possessive pronoun is a part of speech that substitutes for a noun phrase that begins with a possessive determiner . For example, in the sentence These glasses are mine, not yours, the words mine and yours are possessive pronouns and stand for my glasses and your glasses, respectively...
s do and ur (your).
Irish
In Irish, the use of sibh as an address to one person has practically died out, and tú is preferred. In Ulster dialect, the priest is traditionally addressed as sibh.Welsh, Cornish and Breton
Modern WelshWelsh language
Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
, Cornish
Cornish language
Cornish is a Brythonic Celtic language and a recognised minority language of the United Kingdom. Along with Welsh and Breton, it is directly descended from the ancient British language spoken throughout much of Britain before the English language came to dominate...
and Breton
Breton language
Breton is a Celtic language spoken in Brittany , France. Breton is a Brythonic language, descended from the Celtic British language brought from Great Britain to Armorica by migrating Britons during the Early Middle Ages. Like the other Brythonic languages, Welsh and Cornish, it is classified as...
all retain a T–V distinction to varying degrees.
In spoken Welsh, the plural pronoun chi is used when speaking to strangers, elders or superiors whilst ti (or chdi in some parts of the North) is used with friends, close family, animals and children. Ti is also the form used when addressing God. Chwi is an alternative to chi found in very formal literary language.
A similar distinction exists between Cornish singular ty / chy and plural hwy / hwei, but the formal use of the plural is dying out in the modern language.
In Breton second person plural c'hwi is used as a polite form when addressing a single person and the singular te is reserved for informal situations. However, in a large area of central Brittany the singular form has been entirely replaced by c'hwi, as in English.
Russian
RussianRussian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
distinguishes between familiar ty (ты) and respectful vy (вы) — which is also the plural of both forms, used to address a pair or group. (Respectful Vy may be capitalized, while plural vy is not.) Generally, ty is used among friends and relatives, but the usage depends not only on the closeness of the relationship but also on age and the formality of the situation (e.g., work meeting vs. a party). Children always use ty to address each other and are addressed in this way by adults but are taught to address adults with vy. Younger adults typically also address older adults outside the family as vy regardless of intimacy, and may be addressed as ty in return. When talking to each other young people often start with the formal vy but may transition to ty very quickly in an informal situation. Among older people, ty is often reserved for closer acquaintances. Unless there is a substantial difference in age, the choice of the form is symmetric: if A uses ty to address B, then B also uses ty to address A. While people may transition quickly from vy to ty, such transition presumes mutual agreement. Use of ty without consent of the other person is likely to be viewed as poor conduct or even as an insult (or, in the case of opposite-sexed people, overly flirtatious), particularly if the other party maintains using vy.
Historically, the rules have been in favor of more formal usage; as late as the 19th century, it was accepted in many circles (generally of a more refined culture) that vy is to be used between close friends, between husband and wife, and when addressing one's parents (but not one's children), all of which situations today would strongly call for using ty.
The choice between ty and vy is closely related, yet sometimes different, from the choice of the addressing format — that is, the selection from the first name, patronymics, last name, and the title to be used when addressing the person. Normally, ty is associated with the informal addressing by first name only (or, even more informally, by the last name only), whereas vy is associated with the more formal addressing format of using the first name together with patronymics (roughly analogous to "title followed by last name" in English) or the last name together with a title (the last name is almost never used together with either of the other two names to address someone, although such combinations are routinely used to introduce or mention someone).
Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian
In BosnianBosnian language
Bosnian is a South Slavic language, spoken by Bosniaks. As a standardized form of the Shtokavian dialect, it is one of the three official languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina....
, Croatian
Croatian language
Croatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...
and Serbian
Serbian language
Serbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries....
, use of ti is limited to friends and family, and used among children. In any formal use, vi is used only; ti can be used among peers in a workplace but rarely in official documents. It is a common misconception, even among native speakers, that vi is always capitalized when used in formal tone; Vi is capitalized only in direct personal correspondence between two persons.
Bulgarian
BulgarianBulgarian language
Bulgarian is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group.Bulgarian, along with the closely related Macedonian language, demonstrates several linguistic characteristics that set it apart from all other Slavic languages such as the elimination of case declension, the...
distinguishes between familiar ti (ти) and respectful Vie (Вие), although both words literally mean "you". Basically, "ti" is singular and "vie" is plural, but there are some notable exceptions. Ti means singular "you" and implies that you know the individual personally. The word Vie has either plural or singular meaning, depending on context.
When referring to more than one person, the plural vie is used always. For example, "Вие двамата напуснете, моля!" means "You two leave, please!"), and here, although "ti" and "vie" both means "you", "ti" can not be used.
When addressing to one person, if the people talking each other are acquainted then singular "ti" is used, otherwise plural "Vie" should be used. This "singular plural" is usually hard to understand and often people start new acquaintance straight forward with singular "ti", but generally this is considered offensive, rude, or simply not polite. Children are taught to use always "ti" between themselves, unless addressing to more than one child or an unknown adult. One notable rule is that when a conversation between a teacher and a student takes place, then it is imperative the student uses the polite form, but this is not so in the opposite direction.
The grammatically correct spelling of the singular word "Vie" is always with capital "V", whether being the first word in a sentence or not. For example, the sentence "But you are wrong!", if spelled (in Bulgarian) "Но Вие грешите!" (the word "Вие" with capital "В"), it would convey that the speaker is addressing an individual person with a plural, because he/she wants to express a polite, official manner; if spelt "Но вие грешите!" (the second possible Bulgarian translation of "But you are wrong!"), it would then mean that someone is talking to several persons.
Generally, ti is used amongst friends and relatives. When talking to each other, young people often start with the formal vie but quickly transition to ti in an informal situation. Unless there is a substantial difference in social situation (e.g. a teacher and a student), the choice of the form is symmetric: if A. uses ti to address B., then B. also uses ti to address A.. While people may transition quickly from vie to ti, such transition presumes mutual agreement. There is a recent trend not to use the formal "Vie" at all (or mostly at all), but this can lead to awkward situations.
Macedonian
MacedonianMacedonian language
Macedonian is a South Slavic language spoken as a first language by approximately 2–3 million people principally in the region of Macedonia but also in the Macedonian diaspora...
distinguishes between familiar ti (ти) and respectful vie (вие) — which is also the plural of both forms, used to address a pair or group. (Respectful Vie may be capitalized, while plural vie is not.) Generally, ti is used among friends and relatives, but the usage depends not only on the closeness of the relationship but also on age and the formality of the situation (e.g., work meeting vs. a party). Children always use ti to address each other and are addressed in this way by adults but are taught to address adults with vie. Younger adults typically also address older adults outside the family as vie regardless of intimacy, and may be addressed as ti in return. When talking to each other young people often start with the formal vie when talking to each other but may transition to ti very quickly in an informal situation. Among older people, ti is often reserved for closer acquaintances. Unless there is a substantial difference in age, the choice of the form is symmetric: if A uses ti to address B, then B also uses ti to address A. While people may transition quickly from vie to ti, such transition presumes mutual agreement. Use of ti without consent of the other person is likely to be viewed as poor conduct or even as an insult, particularly if the other party maintains using vie.
Slovene
In SlovenianSlovenian language
Slovene or Slovenian is a South Slavic language spoken by approximately 2.5 million speakers worldwide, the majority of whom live in Slovenia. It is the first language of about 1.85 million people and is one of the 23 official and working languages of the European Union...
, although informal address using the 2nd person singular ti form (known as tikanje) is officially limited to friends and family, talk among children, and addressing animals, it is increasingly used instead of its polite or formal counterpart using the 2nd person plural vi form (known as vikanje).
There is an additional nonstandard but widespread use of a singular participle combined with a plural auxiliary verb (known as polvikanje) that also reveals the gender of the person and is used in somewhat less formal situations:
The use of the 3rd person plural oni form (known as onikanje in both direct address and indirect reference) as an ultra-polite form is now archaic or dialectal; it is associated with servant-master relationships in older literature, the child-parent relationship in certain conservative rural communities, and in general with relationships with people of highest respect (parents, clergy, royalty).
Czech
In CzechCzech language
Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...
, there are three levels of formality. The most formal is using the plural verb forms with the surname or title of the addressed person, usual between strangers or people in a professional relationship. The second common form is made by using the singular verb forms together with the given name of the other person, used between friends and in certain social groups (students etc.). The third form, which is quite uncommon, is using the plural verb forms and the given name. It may be used by a teacher when addressing a student, or by a boss addressing his secretary, or in other relationships which are more familiar than between strangers but still not friendship. Please note that using the singular verb forms together with the surname or title is considered very rude. Where stranger introduces himself with title (like inženýr Novák, doktor Svoboda), it is considered more polite to address him with title with vy than with surname. However, with ty a title is considered very rude.
Traditionally, use of the informal form was limited for relatives, very close friends, and for children. During the second half of the 20th century, use of the informal form grew significantly among coworkers, youth and members of organisations and groups. The formal form is always used in official documents and when dealing with a stranger (especially an older one) as a sign of respect. 2nd-person pronouns (Ty, Tvůj, Vy, Váš) are often capitalized in letters, advertisement, etc. The capitalization is optional and is slowly becoming obsolete. A variant of the formal form modeled after German "Sie" (Oni/oni, Jejich/jejich, verb onikat) was frequently used during 19th century but disappeared. This form is also associated with Czech Jewish community before Second World War, and still appears very often in Jewish humour as sign of local colour. Sometimes it in used as irony
Irony
Irony is a rhetorical device, literary technique, or situation in which there is a sharp incongruity or discordance that goes beyond the simple and evident intention of words or actions...
.
In the age internet, where people communicate under nicknames or pseudonymes and almost solely in informal way, capitalizing (ty/Ty mirroring English you/You) is used to emphasise respect, or simply presence of respect. (Ty = friends, honored acquaintance, strangers ty = basic form, vy/Vy = most formal, used to create distance or express contempt, very rude if not sufficiently advocated, often used as insult itself).
In grammar, plural forms are used in personal and possessive pronoun
Pronoun
In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun , such as, in English, the words it and he...
s (vy – you, váš – your) and in verbs, but not in participle
Participle
In linguistics, a participle is a word that shares some characteristics of both verbs and adjectives. It can be used in compound verb tenses or voices , or as a modifier...
s and adjective
Adjective
In grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified....
s, they are used in singular forms (when addressing a single person). This is a difference from some other Slavic languages
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...
(Slovak
Slovak language
Slovak , is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Slavic languages .Slovak is the official language of Slovakia, where it is spoken by 5 million people...
, Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
, etc.)
| One person informal (tykání) |
One person formal (vykání) |
More people (both formal and informal) |
English |
|---|---|---|---|
| ty děláš | vy děláte | vy děláte | you do |
| dělal jsi | dělal jste | dělali jste | you did |
| jsi hodný | jste hodný | jste hodní | you are kind |
| byl jsi přijat | byl jste přijat | byli jste přijati | you were accepted |
Greetings are also connected with T–V distinction. Formal dobrý den (good day) and na shledanou (good-bye) are used with formal vy, while ahoj, nazdar, čau (meaning both hello, hi, and bye) are informal and used with ty.
Lithuanian
In LithuanianLithuanian language
Lithuanian is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognized as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.96 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 170,000 abroad. Lithuanian is a Baltic language, closely related to Latvian, although they...
, historically, aside from familiar tu and respectful jūs or Jūs, also used to express plural, there was a special form tamsta, mostly referred to in third person singular (although referring in second person singular is also not uncommon). This form was used to communicate with a stranger who has not earned particular respect (a beggar, for example). Through the Soviet occupation period, however, this form was mostly replaced by standard neutral form drauge (the vocative case
Vocative case
The vocative case is the case used for a noun identifying the person being addressed and/or occasionally the determiners of that noun. A vocative expression is an expression of direct address, wherein the identity of the party being spoken to is set forth expressly within a sentence...
for draugas, "comrade
Comrade
Comrade means "friend", "colleague", or "ally". The word comes from French camarade. The term is frequently used by left-wing organizations around the globe. "Comrade" has often become a stock phrase and form of address. This word has its regional equivalents available in many...
", the latter being the standard formal form of addressing in all languages of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
used in all situations, from "comrade Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
" to "comrade student"), and by now tamsta is used sparsely. A common way of addressing people whom one don't know well is also Ponas (m) and Ponia (f), from Polish forms of address pan and pani, respectively.
Hindi-Urdu
In both versions of Hindi-Urdu or Hindustani language, there are three levels of honorifics:- आप آپ
In a similar way Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and other Dravidian tongues have honorifics and T–V distinctions, in all the persons.
Bengali
BengaliBengali language
Bengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script...
has three levels of formality in its pronouns; the most neutral forms of address among closer members of a family are তুমি tumi and তোমরা tomra (plural). These two pronouns are also typically used when speaking to children, or to younger members of the extended family. তুমি tumi is also used when addressing God. When speaking with adults outside the family, or with senior members of the extended family, the pronouns আপনি apni and আপনারা apnara (plural) are used. This is also true in advertisements and public announcements. A third set of pronouns, তুই tui and তোরা tora (plural), is reserved for use between very close friends, and by extension, between relatives who share a bond not unlike a close friendship. It is also used when addressing people presumed to be of "inferior" social status; this latter use is occasionally used when speaking to housemaids, rickshaw-pullers, and other service workers, although this use is considered offensive.
The situations in which these different pronouns can be used vary considerably depending on many social factors. In some families, children may address their parents with আপনি apni and আপনারা apnara, although this is becoming increasingly rare. Some adults alternate between all three pronoun levels when speaking to children, normally choosing তুমি tumi and তোমরা tomra, but also often choosing তুই tui and তোরা tora to indicate closeness, or আপনি apni or আপনারা apnara in a joking manner. Additionally, Bengalis vary in which pronoun they use when addressing servants in the home; some may use আপনি apni and আপনারা apnara to indicate respect for an adult outside the family, while others may use তুমি tumi and তোমরা tomra to indicate either inclusion into the family or to indicate somewhat less honorable status. Others may even use তুই tui and তোরা tora to indicate inferior status.
Esperanto
EsperantoEsperanto
is the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Its name derives from Doktoro Esperanto , the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof published the first book detailing Esperanto, the Unua Libro, in 1887...
is not a T–V-distinguishing language. Vi is the generic second person for both singular and plural, just like you in modern English. An informal second person singular pronoun, ci, does exist, but it is almost never used in practice. It is mainly intended to make the familiar/respectful distinction when translating (literature for example) from languages that do have the T–V-distinction.
Some have imagined ci as an archaic term that was used before and then fell out of common usage; however, this is not true. It has appeared only sometimes in experimental language. In standard Esperanto, vi has always been used since the beginning. For example, ci appears in neither the Fundamenta Gramatiko
Fundamento de Esperanto
The Fundamento de Esperanto is a book by L. L. Zamenhof, published in the spring of 1905. On August 9, 1905 it was made the official source for the language by the fourth article of the Declaration of Boulogne at the first World Congress of Esperanto in Boulogne-sur-Mer, France:It is considered...
nor the Unua Libro
Unua Libro
The Unua Libro was the first publication to describe the international language Esperanto . It was first published in Russian on July 26, 1887 in Warsaw, by Dr. L.L. Zamenhof, the creator of Esperanto. Over the next few years editions were published in Russian, Hebrew, Polish, French, German,...
.
Ido
In IdoIdo
Ido is a constructed language created with the goal of becoming a universal second language for speakers of different linguistic backgrounds as a language easier to learn than ethnic languages...
, in theory tu is limited to friends and family, whereas vu is used anywhere else. However, many users actually adapt the practice in their own mother tongue and use tu and vu accordingly. In the plural, though, the only form in use is vi, which does not distinguish between formal and informal address.
In all cases, an -n is added to the original pronoun to indicate a direct object that precedes its own verb: Me amoras tu (I love you) becomes Tun me amoras if the direct object takes the first place, for example for emphatic purposes.
Finnish
In FinnishFinnish language
Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
, today the use of the informal singular form of address (sinä) is widespread in all social circles, even among strangers and in business situations. A counter-trend has been reported in recent years, whereby some people are choosing to use the formal form more often. It mostly occurs in addressing the elderly or in situations where strict adherence to form is expected, such as in the military. As the use of the form conveys formal recognition of the addressee's status and, more correctly, of polite social distance, the formal form might also occasionally be used jeeringly or to protest the addressee's snobbery. A native speaker may also switch to formal form when speaking in anger, as an attempt to remain civil. Advertisements, instructions and other formal messages are mostly in informal singular form (sinä and its conjugations), but the use of formal forms has increased in recent years. For example, as the tax authorities tend to become more informal, in contrast the social security system is reverting to using the formal form.
The same forms, such as the pronoun te, are used for formal singular and for both formal and informal plural. Occasionally in written language the formal singular pronoun capitalized (Te) to distinguish it from a plural (te).
In Finnish the number is expressed in pronouns (sinä or sä for second person singular, or te for second person plural), verb inflections, and possessive suffix
Possessive suffix
In linguistics, a possessive affix is a suffix or prefix attached to a noun to indicate its possessor, much in the manner of possessive adjectives. Possessive suffixes are found in some Uralic, Altaic, Semitic, and Indo-European languages...
es. Almost all of these elements follow the grammar of the second person plural also in the formal singular form. For example, polite Voisitteko te siirtää autonne vs. informal Voisitko (sinä) siirtää autosi, "Could you move your car, (please)?". Each of the person markers are modified: -t- to -tte- (verb person), sinä to te (pronoun), -si to -nne (possessive suffix).
As a few examples of this could be mentioned the way imperative
Imperative mood
The imperative mood expresses commands or requests as a grammatical mood. These commands or requests urge the audience to act a certain way. It also may signal a prohibition, permission, or any other kind of exhortation.- Morphology :...
s are expressed: Menkää! "Go!" (plural), vs. Mene! "Go!" (singular), and the usage of the plural suffix -nne "your" instead of the singular -si "your".
There is number agreement in Finnish, thus you say sinä olet "you are" (singular), but te olette "you are" (plural). However, this does not extend to words describing the addressee, which are in the singular, e.g. oletteko te lääkäri? "are you doctor?" (plural,plural,singular)
A common error, nowadays often made even by native speakers unused to the formal forms, is to use the plural form of the main verb in the perfect and pluperfect constructions. The main verb should be in the singular when addressing one person in the formal plural: Oletteko kuullut? instead of *Oletteko kuulleet? "Have you heard?"
Sometimes the third person is used as a polite form of address, after the Swedish model: Mitä rouvalle saisi olla? "What would madam like to have?" This is far less common in the Eastern parts of Finland, influenced less by the Swedish language and all in all a declining habit. The passive voice
Passive voice
Passive voice is a grammatical voice common in many of the world's languages. Passive is used in a clause whose subject expresses the theme or patient of the main verb. That is, the subject undergoes an action or has its state changed. A sentence whose theme is marked as grammatical subject is...
may be used to circumvent the choice of the correct form of address. In another meaning, the passive voice is also the equivalent of the English patronizing we as in Kuinkas tänään voidaan? "How are we feeling today?"
Finnish language includes the verbs for calling one with informal singular or formal plural: sinutella, teititellä, respectively.
In the Bible and in the Kalevala
Kalevala
The Kalevala is a 19th century work of epic poetry compiled by Elias Lönnrot from Finnish and Karelian oral folklore and mythology.It is regarded as the national epic of Finland and is one of the most significant works of Finnish literature...
, only the "informal" singular is used in all cases.
Estonian
EstonianEstonian language
Estonian is the official language of Estonia, spoken by about 1.1 million people in Estonia and tens of thousands in various émigré communities...
is a language with T–V distinction, second person plural (teie) is used instead of second person singular (sina) as a means of expressing politeness or formal speech. Sina is the familiar form of address used with family, friends, and minors. The distinction is still much more widely used and more rigid than in closely related Finnish language.
Similar to the French language vouvoyer, the verb teietama is used, and teie is used when addressing a (new) customer or a patient, or when talking to a person in his/her function. In hierarchical organization
Hierarchical organization
A hierarchical organization is an organizational structure where every entity in the organization, except one, is subordinate to a single other entity. This arrangement is a form of a hierarchy. In an organization, the hierarchy usually consists of a singular/group of power at the top with...
s, like large businesses or armies, sina is used between members of a same rank/level while teie is used between members of different ranks. Sina (the verb sinatama is also used) is used with relatives, friends, when addressing children and with close colleagues. Borderline situations, such as distant relatives, young adults, customers in rental shops or new colleagues, sometimes still present difficulties.
Hungarian
HungarianHungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
provides numerous, often subtle means of T–V distinction:
The use of the second-person conjugation with the pronoun te (plural ti) is the most informal mode. As in many other European languages, it is used within families, among children, lovers, close friends, (nowadays often) among coworkers, and in some communities, suggesting an idea of brotherhood. Adults unilaterally address children this way, and it is the form used in addressing God and other Christian figures (such as Jesus Christ or the Blessed Virgin), animals, and objects or ideas. Sociologically, the use of this form is widening. Whereas traditionally the switch to te is often a symbolic milestone between people, sometimes sealed by drinking a glass of wine together ("pertu"), today people under the age of about thirty will often mutually adopt te automatically in informal situations. A notable example is the Internet: strangers meeting online use the informal forms of address virtually exclusively, regardless of age or status differences; even Ferenc Gyurcsány
Ferenc Gyurcsány
Ferenc Gyurcsány is a Hungarian politician. He was the sixth Prime Minister of Hungary from 2004 to 2009.He was nominated to take that position on 25 August 2004 by the Hungarian Socialist Party , after Péter Medgyessy resigned due to a conflict with the Socialist Party's coalition partner...
as a Prime Minister in office encouraged people in his blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
to use te mutually when asking him. IKEA
IKEA
IKEA is a privately held, international home products company that designs and sells ready-to-assemble furniture such as beds and desks, appliances and home accessories. The company is the world's largest furniture retailer...
(or rather, its Hungarian team) was noted and practically unique in its choice of this way of addressing people in Hungary in its brochures; reactions were mixed.
Nevertheless, formal forms of address are alive and well in Hungarian:
- The third-person verb conjugation is the primary basis of formal address. The choice of which
- The pronoun
Reflexive pronoun
A reflexive pronoun is a pronoun that is preceded by the noun, adjective, adverb or pronoun to which it refers within the same clause. In generative grammar, a reflexive pronoun is an anaphor that must be bound by its antecedent...
(cf. him/herself), so e.g. the sentence Megütötte magát? can have three meanings: "Did he hit himself?", "Did he hit you?" or "Did you hit yourself?". (For the second meaning, probably ön would be used to avoid ambiguity.)
Role
A role or a social role is a set of connected behaviours, rights and obligations as conceptualised by actors in a social situation. It is an expected or free or continuously changing behaviour and may have a given individual social status or social position...
, where personal acquaintance is not a factor. It is thus used in institutions, business, bureaucracy, advertisements, by broadcasters, by shopkeepers to their customers, and whenever one wishes to maintain one's distance. It is less typical of rural areas or small towns, more typical of cities. It's often capitalized in letters.
Auxiliary verb
In linguistics, an auxiliary verb is a verb that gives further semantic or syntactic information about a main or full verb. In English, the extra meaning provided by an auxiliary verb alters the basic meaning of the main verb to make it have one or more of the following functions: passive voice,...
tetszik (lit. "it pleases [you]") is an indirect alternative (or, perhaps, supplement) to direct address with the third or even second person. In terms of grammar, it can only be applied if the addressed person is mentioned in the nominative, otherwise it is replaced by forms with the name or maga. It is very polite (sometimes seen as over-polite) and not as formal as the Ön form. Children usually address adults outside their family this way. Adults may address more distant relatives, housekeeper
Housekeeper (servant)
A housekeeper is an individual responsible for the cleaning and maintenance of the interior of a residence, including direction of subordinate maids...
s and older persons using this form, and some men habitually address older or younger women this way (this is slightly old-fashioned).
It is important to keep in mind that formal conjugation doesn't automatically imply politeness or vice versa; these factors are independent of each other. For example, Mit parancsolsz? "What would you like to have?" (literally, "What do you command?") is in the informal conjugation, while it can be extremely polite, making it possible to express one's honour towards people one has previously established a friendly relationship with. On the other hand, Mit akar? "What do you want?" is expressed with the formal conjugation, nevertheless it may sound rude and aggressive; the formal conjugation does not soften this tone in any way.
| Example: "you" in the nominative "Will you be leaving tomorrow?" |
Example: "you" in the accusative "I saw you yesterday on the television." |
||||
| Te | (Te) holnap utazol el? | Láttalak tegnap a tévében. | |||
| Maga | (Maga) | holnap utazik el? | Láttam | magát | tegnap a tévében. |
| Ön | (Ön) | önt | |||