T-V distinction

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

Etymology

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

Noun

T-V distinction

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