What's the difference between "você" and "tu"?
from Polly Lingual Hosted by Guilherme Ribeiro
Hello, I’m Guilherme, one of the Portuguese Ambassadors and today I’m going to answer the question: What’s the difference between “tu” and “você”? The quick answer is: they both mean “you”. But, when you’re using “tu”, you have to use the second conjugation, the second person and when you’re using “você”, it’s the third person conjugation. The main reason for this, it’s because in the past “você” was kind of like a title, so it’s kind of like saying “Your Highness” or “Your Honour”. But, you’re never going to say “Your Highness are right or wrong”, you’re going to say “Your Highness is right or wrong”. It’s the third person. So it’s the same idea, when you use “você” it’s the third person. So for example, if we’re using the verb “to eat”, “comer”, if you’re using “tu”, you’re going to say “tu comes”, but if you’re using “você”, you’re going to say “você come”, which is the same as “he” or “she” or “it”. “Ele come”, “ela come”, “você come”. You’re probably going to hear a lot more “tus” in the south of Brazil and the north of Brazil. And kind of like in the middle, a lot more “você”, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Minas Gerais. And when it comes to Portuguese from Portugal, the main difference is that “você” is formal and “tu” is informal. So, in a formal setting, you’re going to say “você”, “você”, “você” and in a informal setting, “tu”. And, I’d say this is probably, yeah, the main difference.
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