Tu me vouvoies?

I think most of the translators working into French had the difficult task to, one day, choose between ‘tu’ or ‘vous’ when faced with the English ‘you’.

And I have to say, this is not an easy task. I recently thought about it, because I was translating a website for a client and their policy was to be more ‘casual’ to the client. Companies want the client to feel close to them and that they are dealt with individually, and the general casual communication provides that feeling. Of course, it always depends on the context, using a casual communication with customers who are upset or angry is not a good idea.

In French, ‘you’ can be translated with two words. ‘Tu’ or ‘vous’. They are very different. ‘Tu’ will always refer to only one person, the one you are speaking to. ‘Vous’ can be two things: the people you are talking to (so more than one person), or it can be only one person you are talking to. So usage of ‘vous’ for ‘you’ when referring to a group of people is quite easy. The tricky part is translating ‘you’ when the context shows it’s only about one person…

The ‘tu’ option

When is it acceptable to use ‘tu’ in French language? Well, first of all, it is more widely used in Canadian French than in European French. But usually it is used with very close people: family, close friends and in some informal contexts (bar, party) with strangers who are usually your age. Here again, there are exception: in some families children use ‘vous’ with their own parents. This use and the impact on the relationship children-parents (common a few decades/centuries ago) is now quite controversial as shown in this article from Ouest-France.

‘Tu’ implies a form of equity between the speakers. This is why it is so difficult for French speakers to use ‘tu’ with older people or those who have a kind of superior position in the hierarchy like your boss. It will mostly be used within families or a group of friends, independently of their age. As I said, you can also find it between strangers in a casual context: more and more bartenders ask you “qu’est-ce que je TE sers?”. Some companies try to implement a form of casual talking between colleagues and in the boss-employee relation and in that case it is possible to use ‘tu’.

So whenever you find these kind of context, feel free to use ‘tu’.

The ‘vous’ option

Usage of ‘vous’ is much simpler. It’s used in … all the other situations! Strangers talking, people knowing each other but having a form on superior-inferior relation, etc. The ‘vous’ form is not only ‘less close’ than ‘tu’ but it also implies a form of politeness. You know someone feels comfortable with you when they will say, ‘ça vous derange qu’on se tutoie?’ introducing the ‘tu’ form.

When communicating with a client, companies will never (or extremely rarely) use ‘tu’. Even if their choice is to create a close relation with their client, it is very difficult to implement ‘tu’ in a client-service provider relation. In fact, if you check all major companies on the web, they use ‘vous’: Facebook, Twitter, Spotify, Google, etc. ‘Tu’ could be used with small companies with a very close client which you now know very well and both of you are almost friends, otherwise … better using ‘vous’.

Final Choice

Well, if the situation is clear, you know what to choose. But sometimes it is not, and you hesitate. My advice would be to opt by default for ‘vous’: you have more chances it is gonna work and sound natural than if you use ‘tu’ BUT do comment the point to your client! He may not realise what it implies to use ‘tu’ or ‘vous’ and will be very thankful if you explain it to him so that the company can decide what policy they want to implement.

“Je suis toujours prêt à tutoyer, pourvu qu’on ne me tutoie pas.” Jean Cocteau, 1942.