Should you say TU or VOUS? A funny :-)

[Annie Sargent]

[Jenny]

I know this is funny – especially the very last box – but this is truly how it feels to an Australian from the bush where the worst sounding insult is actually a compliment (if you ask me I’ll tell you but it involves the F and the C words). Seriously. I am terrified of insulting someone by using the wrong pronoun but I’m also Australian and we don’t do formal.

[Annie Sargent]

If you have an accent when you speak French nobody will be offended if you get this wrong, no worries mate 😉

Now you got me wondering about the worst insult being a compliment. The only thing I can think of with F and C would not feel like a compliment to me!

[Jenny]

Glad to hear our accents will save us. Or at least me. No one can understand my husband. Even in America he had problems.
What you’re thinking with F&C is no doubt correct. Put “mad” in between and that is a compliment. Well, at least in our family. Or you can just leave the F off if they’re not quite as awesome as some but still pretty good.

[Nan Deniston]

This is wonderful Annie. I grew up following these rules but notice more and more that young people (millennials and younger) seem to casually use tu for anyone. Is that your observation or do I have it wrong?

 

[Annie Sargent]

Tu is getting used a lot more indeed! In the workplace nobody says vous to anyone today. This is a striking change that has happened slowly over 15 years.

[Jeff DeLamater]

Just shared this with my daughter that just finished her 2nd year of high school French (she’s still in middle school), and she was cackling hysterically at it 🙂

I love that she’s gotten to the point where I can share French comedy with her, and she can get a lot of it.

[Annie Sargent]

Bravo mademoiselle !

[Author]

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