--- title: Tu or vous? Manners in French — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Tu or vous? Manners in French», a lesson of the french course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: French has two words for "you": tu, the friendly one, and vous, the polite one, and choosing between them is part of good manners. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/5-tu-or-vous-manners-in-french/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [French](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/) / Tu or vous? Manners in French # Tu or vous? Manners in French Lesson 5 of the french course of Mova's primary school: 15 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/french/5-tu-or-vous-manners-in-french/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/5-tu-or-vous-manners-in-french/0/) — French has two words for "you": tu, the friendly one, and vous, the polite one, and choosing between them is part of good manners. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/5-tu-or-vous-manners-in-french/1/) — Tu is for one friend, a child, your family or a pet; vous is for a grown-up you don't know well, a teacher, a waiter, and also for any group of people. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/5-tu-or-vous-manners-in-french/2/) — Picture Archie at the school gate saying "Salut, tu vas bien ?" to his French teacher: it sounds as cheeky as calling her "mate". - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/5-tu-or-vous-manners-in-french/3/) — Many little phrases change with tu and vous: s'il te plaît for a friend, s'il vous plaît for a grown-up; à tes souhaits and à vos souhaits after a sneeze. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/5-tu-or-vous-manners-in-french/4/) — When in doubt, use vous: a grown-up will tell you if they want you to say tu. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/5-tu-or-vous-manners-in-french/5/) — tu ("tu") is the friendly you: for one friend, a child, family and pets. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/5-tu-or-vous-manners-in-french/10/) — Merci ! means thank you and Merci beaucoup ! means thanks a lot; the answer De rien ! ("duh RYAN") means "you're welcome", literally "of nothing". - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/5-tu-or-vous-manners-in-french/11/) — Je vous en prie is a more polite way to say "you're welcome". - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/5-tu-or-vous-manners-in-french/12/) — Pardon ! means sorry or excuse me when you bump into someone or squeeze past; Excusez-moi ! is the polite "excuse me" to ask for help. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/5-tu-or-vous-manners-in-french/13/) — Bonjour, madame and Bonjour, monsieur ("muh-SYUH") are the normal polite greetings, used by children too. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/5-tu-or-vous-manners-in-french/14/) — Je veux means "I want" and can sound like a toddler demanding; Je voudrais ("zhuh voo-DRAY") means "I would like" and is the polite way to ask. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/5-tu-or-vous-manners-in-french/15/) — In France people usually wait until everyone is served and someone says Bon appétit ! before starting to eat. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/5-tu-or-vous-manners-in-french/16/) — When someone sneezes, say À vos souhaits ! to a grown-up or À tes souhaits ! to a friend; the person answers Merci ! - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/5-tu-or-vous-manners-in-french/17/) — Mademoiselle is an old word for miss; today madame is the safe word for any grown-up woman, and official forms no longer use mademoiselle. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/5-tu-or-vous-manners-in-french/18/) — Slang here: "my lover" (West Country) is a friendly way to call someone dear; "lowkey" means a bit, secretly; "bruv" means mate; "thanks heaps" (Australia) means thanks a lot; "like" at the end of a Belfast question just adds a friendly tone. - ← previous: [Hello and goodbye: greetings](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/4-hello-and-goodbye-greetings/) - next →: [Numbers 0 to 20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/6-numbers-0-to-20/) - ↑ back to [French](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/)