06 Gravação de Vídeos para Professores - Material Necessário: Video

04 Gravação de Vídeos para Professores - Atitudes Positivas

03 Gravação de Vídeos para Professores - Horário de gravação

02 Gravação de vídeo para professores - Local de Gravação

01 Gravação de video para professores Introdução e Setup Up

Do you say tu or você in Brazil?

Do you say tu or você in Brazil?

In brazil, you have to use “você” instead of “tu”. It is not that the pronoun “tu” is wrong, but it is very strange for a native Brazilian speaker talk to someone using the word “tu” all the time. So, if you want to sound more natural in brazil, you´d better say: “você sabe onde fica a padaria?” Instead of “tu sabes onde fica a padaria?” (do you where the bakery is?)

This confusion is very justified. In Portugal, for example, they prefer to use the pronoun “tu” as an informal way of addressing people.

In a few regions in Brazil, they prefer to use tu, instead of você. But you can use você in the whole country and don´t have to worry about which region they use tu.

It happens with other Latin languages as well. In Italian, they use “tu”, as in “tu sei mio amico”. In Spanish, they also say “tu eres mi amigo”, using the pronoun “tu”. In French, the same sentence is “tu es mon ami”. If you are in Portugal, you would say “tu es meu amigo”.

Brazil seems to be an exception in using the pronoun “tu” as an informal way of addressing people. Over here, the same sentence is “você é meu amigo.” As everywhere else it seems that “tu” is more used, it is quite common to see foreigners visiting Brazil using the pronoun “tu” instead of “você”.

The plural form of “você” is “vocês”. In some regions, you will listen a very weak “I” when you pronounce it in the plural form, “você” “vocêis”. In Rio de Janeiro, you will listen a “sh” sound as in “você”, “vocês”.

You can use “vocês” to address more than one person. Now, when you want to address someone in a more formal way, you can just use the word Senhor, for man, and Senhora for woman, in case they are older. If they are younger, you can safely use “você”, just don’t forget to use “por favor” in order to be polite.

You also need to be prepared to listen to the other forms of the pronoun “você”. You will listen its short versions “ocê” and “cê”. Onde ocê vai? (where are you going to?) Cê tá doido? (Are you crazy?) But “ocê” and “cê” are viewed as a sign of poor education and they are only for the spoken language. You shouldn´t use them in the written form. Instead, you can use VC, which is a short version for “você” in the written language.

The word “você” has had a remarkable transformation through time. It started with Vossa Mercê, then Vossemecê, Vosmecê, Vancê, until it finally became Você, and then ocê and cê.

When we take this evolution into account, we may understand why Brazil seems to be an exception in the use of the pronoun “você”, as an informal way of addressing people.