T-V distinction

English

Examples
  • French: tu (informal), vous (formal)
  • German: du (informal), Sie (formal)
  • Italian: tu (informal), Lei (formal)
  • Portuguese: tu (informal), você (formal)
  • Spanish: tú (informal), usted (formal)

Etymology

From Latin tū (“thou, singular you”) and vōs (“ye, plural you”).

Noun

T-V distinction (plural T-V distinctions)

  1. (sociolinguistics) The distinction between a formal and an informal second-person pronoun in some languages.
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