English has one word for "you." French has two — tu and vous — and choosing the wrong one can make you sound either cold or overly familiar. It is less about grammar than about relationships, and once you understand the logic, it becomes second nature.
The basic rule
- tu = informal, singular. For friends, family, children, classmates, and peers your own age.
- vous = formal singular and all plurals. For strangers, older people, authority figures, shopkeepers — and any time you address more than one person.
So vous does double duty: it is both the polite "you" and the plural "you."
When in doubt, use vous
This is the golden safety rule. Using vous with someone who expected tu sounds slightly formal — harmless. Using tu with someone who expected vous can sound disrespectful. With adults you do not know, start with vous and let them invite you to switch.
The conjugations differ
The verb changes with each:
- Tu as un moment ? (informal) vs Vous avez un moment ? (formal)
- Comment vas-tu ? vs Comment allez-vous ?
Notice vous takes the same ending whether it means one polite person or several people.
"Passer au tu": making the switch
French even has verbs for this choice: tutoyer (to use tu) and vouvoyer (to use vous). When a relationship warms up, someone may offer "On peut se tutoyer ?" ("Shall we use tu?"). Saying yes is a small, friendly milestone.
Cultural notes
- In many French workplaces colleagues use tu, but you may vous a senior manager until invited otherwise.
- Younger people switch to tu faster than older generations.
- In Québec, tu is used more readily than in France.
Common mistakes
- Using tu with a shopkeeper or waiter — stick with vous.
- Forgetting that addressing a group always takes vous, even close friends.
- Switching between the two mid-conversation with the same person.
Get this right and you signal respect and social awareness — something French speakers genuinely notice. To keep building the grammar around it, work through our French grammar study guides, and brush up on the building blocks in our guide to le, la and French articles.