How do you express Formal & Informal ?

You might be wondering why Tu and Vous have informal and fomal notes written i the English column.

The reason being that you will switch between both of them regarding if you want to sound casual or fomal.

Speaking casual : Tutoiement (Tu)

We call Tutoiement the fact of addressing the person with the pronoun Tu.
Simply said, in a informal context that’s what you use.

Here are some people you would use Tutoiement :

• Friends

• Family members

• Your couple

• Kids

Speaking formal : Vouvoiement (Vous)

This is a polite form, we address to one person with the pronoun Vous. It’s like you consider that this person is a “group of person” so you emphasize his importance to show respect.

Here are some people you would use Tutoiement :

• Unknown persons

• Your company supervisor

• Elder people

• Teachers

⚠️ Don’t confuse Vous when it’s used to mention a group of person. Here we are using it for a single person to show respect.

So which one is better ? How can I know when to use it or not ?

As someone learning French, don’t stress too much about it as people won’t really expect you to be accurate with this rule. So if you choose the wrong one they will still be able to understand what you want to say.

However I think the safe choice is to use mainly Vouvoiement as you can’t really go wrong with it. Something that happens often is starting with Vouvoiement and then it often leads to 2 scenarios :

• You start knowing each other more and more and Tutoiement naturally replaces Vouvoiement

• The other person will tell you “On peut se tutoyer” which means “We can use informal language”

Otherwise with your friends you’ll always use Tutoiement. For me it would sounds extremely weird to use Vouvoiement with friends as it would gives the sensation that we are strangers to each other.

Examples :

faire un petit exemple et clean avec chatgpt la formulation de la leçon