Usage of "tu" and "você" in daily life
Hi there, everyone! (Ola, todo o mundo!)

Anyone who has background and experience in Romance languages would well notice that there exists in general an informal and a formal manner when addressing to another party (in terms of one single person) in concern, and in Portuguese it turns out to be "tu" and "você", respectively. (N.B. Please do not hesitate to rectify me should the above presumptions be incorrect.)

However, unlike in French, Spanish and probably Italian, in Portuguese (especially the Brazilian one) "você" is preferably used in most cases, including the Internet, where we generally try to be in a more relaxing atmosphere and adopt "tu" as a way of addressing ("tutoyer" en français, "tutear" en español, e "parlarsi con tu" in italiano).

To this extent, I would like to clarify, whether it is true that in general practice, we tempt to use solely "tu" for addressing in Brazilian Portuguese, or does it depend on the regions? On the other hand, how would the situation be in Portugal? I was once told that the plural form "vós" is basically not used in Brazil (where people use "vocês" instead), which is similar to the Spanish case, where "vosotros" is hardly used in Latin America ("ustedes(Uds.)" is used instead). Hence, I would like to know more about the case in singular form.

Thank you very much for your kind attention, and happy lunar new year (feliz ano novo lunar). Comments and corrections of any wrong presumed statements are warmly welcomed in addition to explanations and clarifications.Hello. It is now a short few hours after the comments from the third respondent was successfully displayed. I hereby would like to thank a lot for all the given comments and suggestions so far.

The third respondent has somehow clarified a point where I have previously been confused: there exists indeed a part of Brazil where people tend to address a singular party solely with "você" regardless the level of amity. This practice is similar to modern English, where we just use "you" to address a party (singular and plural); but it is obviously different when comparing with French and Spanish (based on my limited knowledge), where we generally adopt "tutoyer" and "tutear" respectively, to the party where we well know.

I am aware that the term of "vós" of Brazilian Portuguese tends to be hardly used for addressing a party in plural except in very formal situations, such as in laws, in Bible and formal religious gathering, etc. Such phenomenon is similar to "vosotros" of Spanish in Latin American region, and possibly "voi" of Italian (I hereby presume). To this extent, Latin Americans adopt "ustedes (Uds.)" to address a party in plural, whereas Italians make use of "Loro".

Additionally, the second respondent has commented an interesting point, where some Brazilians tend to mix up the "tu" conjugation in present with the counterpart of "você". This reminds me that some Chileans also have similar practice, based on my experience in Chile (Valparaíso region) during a year of stay.

Anyway, many thanks again for all the given comments and suggestions. I may have to leave it to the italki system to help me for the best answer, as this time all of them are so good and helpful that I have some difficulty to select the best one. :)

Question

Usage of "tu" and "você" in daily life 
Hi there, everyone! (Ola, todo o mundo!)

Anyone who has background and experience in Romance languages would well notice that there exists in general an informal and a formal manner when addressing to another party (in terms of one single person) in concern, and in Portuguese it turns out to be "tu" and "você", respectively. (N.B. Please do not hesitate to rectify me should the above presumptions be incorrect.)

However, unlike in French, Spanish and probably Italian, in Portuguese (especially the Brazilian one) "você" is preferably used in most cases, including the Internet, where we generally try to be in a more relaxing atmosphere and adopt "tu" as a way of addressing ("tutoyer" en français, "tutear" en español, e "parlarsi con tu" in italiano).

To this extent, I would like to clarify, whether it is true that in general practice, we tempt to use solely "tu" for addressing in Brazilian Portuguese, or does it depend on the regions?  On the other hand, how would the situation be in Portugal?  I was once told that the plural form "vós" is basically not used in Brazil (where people use "vocês" instead), which is similar to the Spanish case, where "vosotros" is hardly used in Latin America ("ustedes(Uds.)" is used instead).  Hence, I would like to know more about the case in singular form.

Thank you very much for your kind attention, and happy lunar new year (feliz ano novo lunar).  Comments and corrections of any wrong presumed statements are warmly welcomed in addition to explanations and clarifications.Hello.  It is now a short few hours after the comments from the third respondent was successfully displayed.  I hereby would like to thank a lot for all the given comments and suggestions so far.

The third respondent has somehow clarified a point where I have previously been confused: there exists indeed a part of Brazil where people tend to address a singular party solely with "você" regardless the level of amity.  This practice is similar to modern English, where we just use "you" to address a party (singular and plural); but it is obviously different when comparing with French and Spanish (based on my limited knowledge), where we generally adopt "tutoyer" and "tutear" respectively, to the party where we well know.

I am aware that the term of "vós" of Brazilian Portuguese tends to be hardly used for addressing a party in plural except in very formal situations, such as in laws, in Bible and formal religious gathering, etc.  Such phenomenon is similar to "vosotros" of Spanish in Latin American region, and possibly "voi" of Italian (I hereby presume).  To this extent, Latin Americans adopt "ustedes (Uds.)" to address a party in plural, whereas Italians make use of "Loro".

Additionally, the second respondent has commented an interesting point, where some Brazilians tend to mix up the "tu" conjugation in present with the counterpart of "você".  This reminds me that some Chileans also have similar practice, based on my experience in Chile (Valparaíso region) during a year of stay.

Anyway, many thanks again for all the given comments and suggestions.  I may have to leave it to the italki system to help me for the best answer, as this time all of them are so good and helpful that I have some difficulty to select the best one. :)

Answer

I'm in Sao Paulo state and we only use voce and voces.  I have only seem vos (and vosso/vossa for the possessives) in church service sheets and on religious television programmes.

I know that tu is more common in the South (you can even tell through how teachers here that are from different regions try to teach you the verbs ;))  However, I believe that for me personally I can do without learning these forms for now.  If you have any background in Spanish, I think you can pick this up really easily later on - you can clearly see the similarities.

I think something to be aware of though is that we still use the TU form of the object pronoun here.  For example:

me amo - I love myself  (:s hahaha)
TE amo - I love you
se amo - I love him/her

Notice we use TE amo and not the voce form which would be SE amo.

(Native speakers, please correct me if this example is incorrect - or try to explain in a better way - thanks!)

Answer

"vós" is polite, used in laws, biblic lenguage, etc.
"tu" is not normal just in south of brasil, people from the center-south speak it too, but many people speak it wrong.

example:
"tu vai" - wrong
"tu vais" - right

You can use "tu" when you want without problems, its the same as "você" and everybody will understand it.

Sometimes people pronounce only "cê" when want to say "você", but its not polite.

Answer

hi .." tu" is most use  in south of Brazil.. and  we don't use" você ";  portuguese  on brazilian coast  are similar to Portugal mainly in Santa Catarina and rio Grande do Sul where  people  who comes from Açores and   Madeira  islands from Portugal established  , and "vos " is  used  for old  people  who talks in old  portuguese  , but rarely used indeed ,small and  typical fishers  villages  in Santa Catarina use  to talk portuguese  as in Portugal  islands.
In short :yes depend  the regions where  you are ,you talk in  one  language in particular .Hopefully  it can  helps you .

Answers · 3

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