Quote:
Originally Posted by rousseau
Time to bring this thread back to life. I'm been grooving to this tune lately: "Je Ne Vois Que Vous."
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I've got a question about the use of "vous": why? Why not "tu"? Does it mean or suggest that the "vous" is a somewhat unobtainable person not directly known to the singer(s)? If this song were about a girlfriend, wouldn't "tu" be more appropriate? What's the significance of using "vous" here, if any?
Separate question: Last night I drove into Toronto to buy a (completely fantastic!) keyboard tray. On my way out I stopped at a burrito place and struck up a conversation with the nice young woman behind the counter. She was from Colombia. We spoke Spanish. I made a deadpan joke about being Mexican, to which she asked, in astonishment: "Eres Mexicano?"
She used the "tu" form. I've noticed that younger Spanish speakers the world over seem to use "tu" to strangers in informal settings these days. What about in French? |
Your observation about the use of "tu" in Spanish (in Latin America at least) if very true. "Usted" has all but disappeared among friends and colleagues who would never have used it, say twenty or thirty years ago. The "tu" form is also used almost exclusively in print advertising - friends in Central America tell me they find it very normal as it makes the pitch seem more "intimate".