Coin Culture: Langage formel et informel

Formal and informal language

Formality in language

There are many ways to convey formality in a language, including:

• Tone: You can either speak with a relaxed tone (friendly, personal) or with a professional tone (professional, serious, poised).
• Sentence structure and vocabulary: You can speak with short, simple sentences with contractions (I can’t come) or you can speak with longer, more complexe sentences (I am unable to attend).
• Address: The ways in which you (initially) address someone sets the formality of the conversation.

How to address someone in French?

When meeting someone for the first time, does one use the informal French pronoun tu or the formal vous (equivalent to English “you”)?

In general:

tu

• is used with friends, family, and children.
• is always singular and informal.

vous

• can be used to address one person:
  • is used to express politeness, formality, and social distance. Vous is the form of address used for all formal situations. When in doubt, use vous.
• can be used to address two or more people:
  • we can translate it by “you all“, or “y’all” to differentiate it from the “tu” singular, you.