Chris Yates
why do you use és with tu, and é with você? why do you use és with tu, and é with você? I've noticed that when asking questions using tu, the verbs end in 's'. In english, that would usually mean that your subject us plural. I know that tu is a singular pronoun though. How does tu affect sentence structure compared to você? Any good thoughts?
Oct 30, 2014 5:25 AM
Answers · 12
2
The basic answer is this: "Tu" is the second person, equivalent to the singular "you" in english. "Você" is a formal way of addressing someone and it came from the expression "vossa mercê", which means "your mercy". So, it makes sense to use the third person when using "você". Like if you were conjugating "ele" ("he") ou "ela" ("she"). The (slightly) more complicated use of the two words is this: In Portugal, the rule is to use "tu" when you want to be informal. "Você" is used in a formal and more polite situation. Some people find it kind of rude to use the actual word "você". So, to be even more polite, you would use the name of the person and conjugate it as "você". So, if you're asking a woman called Maria if she wants somehing, you could do it in the following ways, from casual to formal: "(Tu) queres alguma coisa?", the word "tu" is optional, because the verb already states that we're using the second person. "(Você) quer alguma coisa?", "você" is also optional, for the same reason. "A Maria quer alguma coisa?", you use the third person in the verb conjugation and state the person's name. In Brasil, it's much more common to use "você" for everybody in any situation. There are some exceptions. For example, in Rio de Janeiro people use "tu", but conjugate it as the third person, so you get things like "tu é", which for me is not correct portuguese, but it's used in spoken language anyway in some regions. As for the plural, it's normal to use "vocês" both in Portugal and Brasil. And conjugate it as the third person in the plural. Oficially, the plural form of "you" is "vós", conjugated in the second person in the plural. But this is usually considered archaic. You can see it in some films when the action happens in medieval times, for example. But as usual, there are exceptions. In northern Portugal, it's still quite common to use "vós" and it's completely correct.
November 4, 2014
2
"Você" is a short form of an old portuguese treatment pronoun. That's why verbs used with it are conjugated in third person, such as in English, "your honour is" or "your highness is".
October 30, 2014
1
In Brazil "você" is the most commonly used form, however in the European Portuguese we use both "tu" and "você" depending on the situation and who you are talking to. "Tu" is the informal way, so you usually use it when talking to a friend, relative or someone of a young age, and in all the other cases, like if it's someone older, your boss or someone you don't know well, you better use the formal form "você". Thus the verb conjugation is different, for example: Verb "To be": Tu és/Você é Tu estás/Você está Verb "To have": Tu tens/Você tem Hope this helps ;)
October 30, 2014
Well, a lot of answars but none of them was clear. The "você" refer to the second person of the speech, but is conjugeted in the third person. I hope I helped you :)
November 3, 2014
The word "Vóis" usually it's used in the north of Portugal and it's like "you".
November 10, 2014
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