vous

vous

Czech

Alternative forms

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *ǫsъ.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [ˈvou̯s]
  • Audio:(file)
  • Hyphenation: vous

Noun

vous m inan (diminutive vousek or vousík)

  1. one of threads of hair which form a beard
  2. beard
    Synonym: vousy

Declension

Declension of vous (hard masculine inanimate)
singular plural
nominative vous vousy
genitive vousu vousů
dative vousu vousům
accusative vous vousy
vocative vouse vousy
locative vousu vousech
instrumental vousem vousy

Derived terms

adjectives
nouns

See also

Further reading

French

Etymology

    Inherited from Middle French vous, from Old French vos, vous, from Latin vōs, from Proto-Italic *wōs.

    See cognates in regional languages in France: Angevin, Bourbonnais-Berrichon, Bourguignon, Champenois, Lorrain, Orléanais, and Poitevin-Saintongeais vous; Franc-Comtois vôs; Gallo vouz; Norman and Franco-Provençal vos; Picard os; Occitan vosautres (Provençal vousautes); Catalan vosaltres; Corsican voi.

    Other cognates with the same usage are voi in Italian as well as вы (vy) in Russian.

    Pronunciation

    Pronoun

    vous (second-person plural and second-person formal singular, informal singular tu, object vous, emphatic vous, possessive determiner votre)

    1. the plural personal pronoun in the second person
      1. (subject pronoun) you (all)
        Toi et lui, vous êtes mes meilleurs amis. ― You and him, you are my best friends.
      2. (direct object pronoun) you (all)
        Je vous adore. ― I love you (all).
    2. you, to you (indirect object pronoun)
      Je vous donnerai mon adresse. ― I will give you my address. / I will give my address to you.
    3. (formal, polite) plural or singular personal pronoun in the second person
      Monsieur, je ne peux pas vous le dire ― Sir, I cannot tell you.

    Usage notes

    • The term vous is used to address more than one person or to address one person formally. It is often used, for example, when two adults meet for the first time.
    • Children, youth, and students do not usually use vous with each other. Adults do not usually use vous to address young children.
    • The use of vous is always considered professional and is used in office settings, schools, etc. to address a single person even when the speaker knows that person well. Thus, Avez-vous fini? ('Are you (formal) finished?') may often be heard in an office setting, while As-tu fini? ('Are you (informal) finished?') is not as common. Likewise, some people may call each other tu in some settings and vous in others; for example, lawyers who are friends with each other may call each other tu in informal settings but vous when in court, out of respect for the formal setting.
    • The use of vous and tu also varies from place to place:
    Quebecers tend to use informal tu more liberally than their European counterparts. They may use it, for example, among work colleagues.
    In Louisiana, the use of vous as a subject pronoun is restricted. It is increasingly uncommon among succeeding generations of speakers. When it is used, it is a polite form of address that tends to be directed toward a much older person. For example, a child or young adult might use vous to address a grandparent, great-grandparent, or elderly stranger. (One exception, though, is the fixed expression s'il vous plaît (“please”), which in Louisiana never takes the informal form s'il te plaît.) When addressing more than one person, vous-autres (“y'all”) is much more common than vous.
    • Furthermore, in Louisiana, vous (like nous (“we”)), may at times take third-person singular conjugations:
      vous êtes / vous est ― y'all are
      vous avez / vous a ― y'all have

    Derived terms

    French personal pronouns
    number person gender nominative
    (subject)     		accusative
    (direct complement)     		dative
    (indirect complement)     		locative
    (at)     		genitive
    (of)     		disjunctive
    (tonic)1     		emphatic
    reflexive
    singular first — je, j’ me, m’ — — moi moi-même
    second — tu te, t’ — — toi toi-même
    third masculine il2 le, l’ lui y en lui lui-même
    feminine elle la, l’ elle elle-même
    indeterminate on3, l’on (formal), ce4, c’, ça — — — — — —
    reflexive — se, s’5 — — soi soi-même
    plural first — nous nous — — nous nous-mêmes
    second6 — vous vous — — vous vous-mêmes,
    vous-même6
    third masculine ils7 les leur y en eux7 eux-mêmes7
    feminine elles elles elles-mêmes

    1 The disjunctive (tonic) forms are also used after an explicit preposition (de/d’, à, pour, chez, dans, vers, sur, sous, ...), instead the accusative, dative, genitive, locative, or reflexive forms, where a preposition is implied.
    2 Il is also used as an impersonal nominative-only pronoun.
    3 On can also function as a first person plural (although agreeing with third person singular verb forms).
    4 The nominal indeterminate form ce (demonstrative) can also be used with the auxiliary verb être as a plural, instead of the proximal or distal gendered forms.
    5 The reflexive third person singular forms (se or s’) for accusative or dative are also used as third person plural reflexive.
    6 Vous is also used as the polite singular form, in which case the plural disjunctive tonic vous-mêmes becomes singular vous-même.
    7 Ils, eux and eux-mêmes are also used when a group has a mixture of masculine and feminine members.

    Descendants

    • Haitian Creole: ou
    • Louisiana Creole: vou

    Further reading

    Middle English

    Adjective

    vous

    1. alternative form of fous

    Middle French

    Etymology

      From Old French vos, vous, from Latin vōs.

      Pronunciation

      Pronoun

      vous

      1. you (plural or polite)
      2. yourself (second-person plural or polite reflexive pronoun)

      Usage notes

      • As in modern French, vous is either plural or polite as both a subject pronoun and a reflexive pronoun:
        • 1488, Jean Dupré, Lancelot du Lac, page 12:
          Car se vous vous mettez en ceste forest qui est grande et espesse
          For if you put yourself into this forest which is big and thick
          (The first vous is the subject pronoun, and the second is the reflexive pronoun. Both are singular, referring to Lancelot)

      Descendants

      • French: vous
        • Haitian Creole: ou
        • Louisiana Creole: vou

      Old French

      Etymology

      From Latin vōs.

      Pronunciation

      • IPA(key): /vus/

      Pronoun

      vous

      1. alternative form of vos
      This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.