In English, the second person pronoun only has one person - whether talking to one person or several, whether talking to an intimate friend of someone we don't know at all, we say "you".
However, as in many other languages, Portuguese has several forms for these words. In fact, there are EIGHT forms of the word "you" in Portuguese. They are listed below.
Tu
Vós
Você
Vocês
O senhor
A senhora
Os senhores
As senhorasEditTu and Vós
'Vós' is relatively uncommon nowadays, but 'tu' is still widely used in Portugal and in south of Brazil.
TU
This form of "you" is very informal, and can only be used when talking to one person. That is to say, it is only ever used between friends, when addressing children, or in situations where a certain level of comfort has been established. It is mostly only used in Portugal. In Brazil it is never used with the exception of the southern states of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina. Tu is conjugated with the SECOND PERSON SINGULAR conjugation (This means that when we use a verb, such as
falar to speak, there is a unique way to conjugate
falar - in the present indicative, it is
tu falas).
VÓS
This is the plural form of "you", or SECOND PERSON PLURAL. It is formal in Portugal. It is hardly ever used any more in the spoken language even in Portugal, however it is still occasionally used in (formal) written communication in Portugal. It may also be encountered in literature, for example The Bible, in a similar way to some words such "Thee" and "Thou" in English. For example,
Vós falais you speak.
EditVocê and Vocês
These are the most common forms of 'you' in usage. If in doubt, they can be used in almost any situation.
VOCÊ
This is the more commonly used form of "you" and is used between employees, friends, people of the same age and social standing. Again, it can only be used when you are talking to one person. It can be both mildly formal (in Portugal is never informal) and informal (in Brazil). It is widely used in Brazil instead of
tu. It uses the THIRD PERSON SINGULAR conjugation, which means we use the same form of the verb as with "he" or "she" - for instance,
ele fala he speaks and
você fala you speak.
VOCÊS
This has the same level of formality as the singular
você, however, it used when talking to a group of people. It uses the THIRD PERSON PLURAL conjugation. That means that we use the same part of the verb as with 'they'. For instance,
eles gostam they like and
vocês gostam you like
EditO senhor and A senhora
These are the polite forms of 'you'. They are widely used.
O SENHOR and
A SENHORA
This is the formal version of "you" (one person), and is used when you don't know someone, or towards someone you should show respect to, for example, a boss or a teacher.
O senhor is used when talking to a male, and
a senhora when talking to a female. Like
você, it uses the THIRD PERSON SINGULAR conjugation. So we can have
Você fala or
O senhor fala.
OS SENHORES and
AS SENHORAS
These two forms are, as you have probably guessed, the plural forms of
o senhor and
a senhora, respectively. We use them in the same situations as with
o senhor and
a senhora - but when we are talking to more than one person.
And what if we are talking to a group which is mixed? Unfortunately for equality of the sexes, we use
os senhores if the group is mixed. These forms, like
vocês, use the THURD PERSON PLURAL conjugation. So we can have
eles comeram they ate,
vocês comeram you ate,
os senhores comeram you ate and
as senhoras comeram you ate
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