How To Express the "Vouvoiement" in English
I wonder how to express the "vouvoiement". I don't know how to say that in English, I didn't find any translation. That's why I've written the french word.
In fact, in French and in some other languages like Spanish, you can talk to someone in two ways.
The first one is when you talk to your friends or your family, you'll talk to them with closeness. Plus, you can use "tu" in French with anyone under the age of 30.
When you talk to strangers, elderly people or someone whom you want to show your respect, in this case, you'll say "vous".
However, in English, there is one solution and this "you". So, how to know if the person use the "vouvoiement" (vous) or the "tutoiement" (tu). I noticed in series that it's not clear. Sometimes, I really don't know. So, I looked for an explanation. According to my research, there are clues so that you can deduce. When you perceive someone using colloquial expressions, you'll guess this closeness as I said. For example, the idioms "Hello Rachel! How are you doing?" or "See ya/you!" express the "tutoiement" (familiarity) whereas the expressions : "Hello Mrs Green! How are you? or "I look forward to hearing from you" express the "vouvoiement" (formality) because we sense the politeness of this way of speaking.
What's your method to recognize that? I assume that native English speakers don't have any trouble because they get used to it.
Thanks for reading this entry.
I think as an English native I never even consider this as a problem. We don't have the binary difference that French has but we can of course detect when someone is addressing us in a polite or impolite way, which is what counts at the end of the day! And yes - as you say in your texts, we can detect this in the words we here, but also using other cues such as body language and tone of voice.
In any case, I think it makes English slightly easier that French in this respect, so enjoy it!
Thank you Adam for all the corrections! I realize that English is easier in so many ways like the conjugation for example.
Our choice of expressions indicate whether we are speaking in a familiar or extremely polite way. I would never go to my boss and say: "how's it hanging, buddy?". Nor would I address the President as "prez". It would be Mr. President or Sir. As Adam writes, there are also body language and tone of voice. Just because English has only one 2nd person pronoun it does not indicate that there are not different levels of politeness. Nowadays the pronoun "thou" and its variants are reserved for God in official prayers.
Interesting @chazy! I'm also wondering how do you adress someone when there is a group of people? Do you point at this person? I don't live this experience yet. I assume there is no difficulty with the using of "you" in this case, but I'm curious to know it.
We simply use the pronoun "you". Depending on the group, we can say "ladies and Gentlemen" or "my friends" or "you guys (very informal). In the Southern states, many people will say "ya'll" for the plural (a contraction of "you all". Now on a lighter note, in Texas you will hear "all ya'll", meaning everybody in the group. Oh, by the way, pointing at people is usually considered impolite. I have read that English is in a process of change. I recently watched an Australian film with a strong Australian accent and full of Australian colloquialism. I admit that I needed subtitles to understand everything.
Thank you very much for your feedback @chazy!