vostè
See also: voste and vosté
Catalan
Alternative forms
- vosté (Valencian)
Etymology
Contraction of vostra (“your”) mercè (“grace”), attested from the 16th century.[1]
Pronunciation
- (Balearic) IPA(key): /vosˈtə/
- (Central) IPA(key): /busˈtɛ/
- (Valencian) IPA(key): /vosˈte/
Pronoun
vostè (strong)
- you (formal, singular)
- Synonyms: (common) tu, (formal) vós
Usage notes
- Vostè is a very polite form of address for a single person. It is used with the third-person singular form of the verb. (Compare the polite usage of você in Portuguese and usted in Spanish.) Traditionally it was only used with judges, doctors, and so on, with vós being used in most polite situations, for example with elderly people, and tu being used in informal situations. Nowadays, tu is the most common form, even in formal contexts, and vostè is becoming more common than vós because of contact with Spanish. In Valencian, this word is usually spelled vosté, since it has /e/ instead of /ɛ/.
Declension
Catalan personal pronouns and clitics
| strong/subject | weak (direct object) | weak (indirect object) | possessive | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| singular | proclitic | enclitic | proclitic | enclitic | ||||
| 1st person | jo, mi3 | em, m’ | -me, ’m | em, m’ | -me, ’m | meu | ||
| 1st person majestic1 | nós | ens | -nos, ’ns | ens | -nos, ’ns | nostre | ||
| 2nd person | tu | et, t’ | -te, ’t | et, t’ | -te, ’t | teu | ||
| 2nd person formal1 | vós | us | -vos, -us | us | -vos, -us | vostre | ||
| 2nd person very formal2 | vostè | el, l’ | -lo, ’l | li | -li | seu | ||
| 3rd person masculine | ell | el, l’ | -lo, ’l | li | -li | seu | ||
| 3rd person feminine | ella | la, l’4 | -la | li | -li | seu | ||
| 3rd person neuter | ho | -ho | li | -li | seu | |||
| 3rd person reflexive | si | es, s’ | -se, ’s | es, s’ | -se, ’s | seu | ||
| plural | ||||||||
| 1st person | nosaltres | ens | -nos, ’ns | ens | -nos, ’ns | nostre | ||
| 2nd person | vosaltres | us | -vos, -us | us | -vos, -us | vostre | ||
| 2nd person formal2 | vostès | els | -los, ’ls | els | -los, ’ls | seu | ||
| 3rd person masculine | ells | els | -los, ’ls | els | -los, ’ls | seu | ||
| 3rd person feminine | elles | les | -les | els | -los, ’ls | seu | ||
| 3rd person reflexive | si | es, s’ | -se, ’s | es, s’ | -se, ’s | seu | ||
| adverbial | ||||||||
| ablative/genitive | en, n’ | -ne, ’n | ||||||
| locative | hi | -hi | ||||||
| 1) Behaves grammatically as plural. 2) Behaves grammatically as third person. | 3) Only as object of a preposition. 4) Not before unstressed (h)i-, (h)u-. | |||||||
References
- “vostè”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2023
Further reading
- “vostè” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
- “vostè” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
- “vostè” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.