vouvoyer
English
Verb
vouvoyer (third-person singular simple present vouvoyers, present participle vouvoyering, simple past and past participle vouvoyered)
- Alternative form of vousvoyer
- 1996 May 17, Elizabeth Thompson, “Bertrand found fake ‘Bouchard’ a bit haughty”, in The Gazette, page A 2:
- [Guy] Bertrand said he should also have twigged when “Bouchard” – whom he has addressed using the familiar “tu” for years – started off the conversation using the formal “vous.” “I found myself saying, ‘Hello, Lucien, how is it going?’ and he ‘vouvoyered’ me and he had a bit of a haughty air. So I told myself that even though we know each other well, perhaps it’s better if we use vous.”
- 2000 February 19, Mary Blume, “Mastering the Unmasterable: A French Puzzle”, in The New York Times:
- An outraged Parisian gave up skiing when his instructor addressed him as tu, while a fashionable personal trainer insists upon it because he would not feel right about vouvoyer-ing deltoids and abs. […] Questioned on his use of tu and vous, a Paris doctor said he doesn't know why he addresses his daughter-in-law as vous and his son-in-law as tu or why he tutoyers his golf pro but vouvoyers his golf partners.
- 2012 January 7, Joanna Briscoe, “Alone in Paris”, in The Independent, number 7872, page 46:
- I had followed up the few leads I had and was invited to a couple of dinner parties, but after years of over-busy social life in London, I had become an awkward mute, knowing I was failing to understand the codes, the tutoyer-ing versus the vouvoyer-ing.
- 2016, Jo Baker, A Country Road, A Tree, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN, page 181:
- The lad is vouvoyering him, being well brought up: the state he’s in, he has hardly earned the formal mode.
- 2020 January 29, Norman Hunt, “Madame XXX”, in The Connexion:
- In my view, vouvoyering is not enough. Far better to go on to monsieur et madame, which applies another diaphanous layer of style.
-
French
Alternative forms
- vousoyer
- voussoyer
Etymology
An alteration of voussoyer (vous + -oyer), influenced by the v in vous and the form of tutoyer.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /vu.vwa.je/
Audio (file)
Verb
vouvoyer
- (transitive) to address someone using the formal pronoun vous rather than the informal tu, to use the V-form, to "you" (as opposed to "to "thou"")
- Antonym: tutoyer
Conjugation
This verb is part of a large group of -er verbs that conjugate like noyer or ennuyer. These verbs always replace the 'y' with an 'i' before a silent 'e'.
Conjugation of vouvoyer (see also Appendix:French verbs)
| infinitive | simple | vouvoyer | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| compound | avoir + past participle | ||||||
| present participle or gerund1 | simple | vouvoyant /vu.vwa.jɑ̃/ | |||||
| compound | ayant + past participle | ||||||
| past participle | vouvoyé /vu.vwa.je/ | ||||||
| singular | plural | ||||||
| first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
| indicative | je (j’) | tu | il, elle, on | nous | vous | ils, elles | |
| (simple tenses) | present | vouvoie /vu.vwa/ | vouvoies /vu.vwa/ | vouvoie /vu.vwa/ | vouvoyons /vu.vwa.jɔ̃/ | vouvoyez /vu.vwa.je/ | vouvoient /vu.vwa/ |
| imperfect | vouvoyais /vu.vwa.jɛ/ | vouvoyais /vu.vwa.jɛ/ | vouvoyait /vu.vwa.jɛ/ | vouvoyions /vu.vwaj.jɔ̃/ | vouvoyiez /vu.vwaj.je/ | vouvoyaient /vu.vwa.jɛ/ | |
| past historic2 | vouvoyai /vu.vwa.je/ | vouvoyas /vu.vwa.ja/ | vouvoya /vu.vwa.ja/ | vouvoyâmes /vu.vwa.jam/ | vouvoyâtes /vu.vwa.jat/ | vouvoyèrent /vu.vwa.jɛʁ/ | |
| future | vouvoierai /vu.vwa.ʁe/ | vouvoieras /vu.vwa.ʁa/ | vouvoiera /vu.vwa.ʁa/ | vouvoierons /vu.vwa.ʁɔ̃/ | vouvoierez /vu.vwa.ʁe/ | vouvoieront /vu.vwa.ʁɔ̃/ | |
| conditional | vouvoierais /vu.vwa.ʁɛ/ | vouvoierais /vu.vwa.ʁɛ/ | vouvoierait /vu.vwa.ʁɛ/ | vouvoierions /vu.vwa.ʁjɔ̃/ | vouvoieriez /vu.vwa.ʁje/ | vouvoieraient /vu.vwa.ʁɛ/ | |
| (compound tenses) | present perfect | present indicative of avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect | imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| past anterior2 | past historic of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| future perfect | future of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| conditional perfect | conditional of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| subjunctive | que je (j’) | que tu | qu’il, qu’elle | que nous | que vous | qu’ils, qu’elles | |
| (simple tenses) | present | vouvoie /vu.vwa/ | vouvoies /vu.vwa/ | vouvoie /vu.vwa/ | vouvoyions /vu.vwaj.jɔ̃/ | vouvoyiez /vu.vwaj.je/ | vouvoient /vu.vwa/ |
| imperfect2 | vouvoyasse /vu.vwa.jas/ | vouvoyasses /vu.vwa.jas/ | vouvoyât /vu.vwa.ja/ | vouvoyassions /vu.vwa.ja.sjɔ̃/ | vouvoyassiez /vu.vwa.ja.sje/ | vouvoyassent /vu.vwa.jas/ | |
| (compound tenses) | past | present subjunctive of avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect2 | imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| imperative | – | – | – | ||||
| simple | — | vouvoie /vu.vwa/ | — | vouvoyons /vu.vwa.jɔ̃/ | vouvoyez /vu.vwa.je/ | — | |
| compound | — | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | — | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | — | |
| 1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en. | |||||||
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way:
(Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81). | |||||||
Derived terms
- vouvoiement
See also
- T-V distinction
Further reading
- “vouvoyer”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.