The different ways to say YOU in French

In the past, we used to have two different ways to say, ‘you’ in English. We’ve always had ‘you’, but we also used to have ‘thou’. In French, there still exist two different ways to say you.

In old English, we used to have the word ‘thou’, which was used when talking informally, that is to say when speaking to people we knew well. The word ‘you’ was reserved for more formal occasions; it was used when speaking to people we didn’t know or those who were older than us. In French, even today, there are two ways to say you: ‘tu’ and ‘vous’.

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TU

The word ‘tu’ is equivalent to the word ‘thou’. It is classed as an ‘informal singular’ word. What this means is that you only ever use it when you’re speaking to just one person whom you know well. This could be a friend or family member. You can also use ‘tu’ in French when you’re speaking to somebody who is younger than you.