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Offtop question para spaniards y apanish-speaking
7 replies
RuRoxLove said on January 11, 2005 00:34:
Es esto la verdad que en Espana y en otros paises donde hablan Espanol todos hablan “tu” para todos y hablan “usted” y “ustedes” a reinas y reines only? ( sorry of my Spanish...)
Is that truth that in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking countries people use to say “tu” to unknowns and use to say “Vd.” and “Vds.” very rerely, to royal persons only?
RuRoxLove said on January 12, 2005 21:56:
@arnie: simply, our teacher of Spanish in the university told us, that in Spain people say “tu” even unknown people in the streets and that students say “tu” the teachers, and that in Spain people say “mujer” or “hombre” or “joven” and almost don’t use “senora” or “senor”... Now, I can see he was wrong...
Howewer, beeng in Spain I never heard anybody talking to me “senor”, “joven” only- that’s when in France I heard “monsier” all the time;)
Nox1983 said on January 16, 2005 00:38:
i have heard that now in Spain none use Usted, its the same in Argentina, but in Chile we still use Usted, even some young people say Usted to their parents...
Santi said on January 16, 2005 13:57:
I’m Spanish from Spain. In Spain we use tu and Usted. Usted is the polite form and you may use it about always to address to older people, to teachers, or in any formal situation that needs respect. Usted is used in Spain but of course not as much as in Colombia or Ecuador for example, where people talk to even their kids using “usted”.
People likes more to be address as “tu” because with “usted” there is a formal barrier, that there is not with tu. In this case, with tu you feel like closer, but in many situations that is not what you want, so you use usted. I guess it has to do with the fact that people in this society of ours want to be eternally young.
In reply to what you say about telling to the teachers “tu”, is simply because the teachers preffer to be called that and tell you so, probably the first time you meet or he has told you some day. I would never call a teacher by “tu” if he hasn’t told me that I’m allowed to do so previously.
I would say that “joven” is not used in Spain. Probably in Mexico is, sounds very Mexican to me.
For Royal family people usted is not used. Is completely different. You say “Majestad”, “Su Majestad”, “Su Alteza Real”, but not “usted”. Is not appropriate. Not good manners. Like you would never say “tu” either to them.
Jud (moderator) said on January 16, 2005 18:26:
yes I agree with Santi. I am also Spanish and I use Usted for older people (except for my grandparents, but I do use it for my older aunts), for people you don’t know, sometimes your boss.. it depends on the boss, I called “Usted” to the owner of the company but “tu” to any other department boss. I use tu for friends, parents, grandparents, workmates, .. also used tu for my teachers at school simply because they asked for that. I used “usted” to some university teachers, not all of them though, only some because they wanted that and also talked to me as “usted”.
So you see it depends on the person many times. I have a friend who calls her parents “usted” - they are rather old and from a village so I guess they are used to “old manners”.
For me the “vos” sounds like “usted”. I met a girl from Colombia here in Vienna and I was always a bit “confused” when she talked to me like “vos”, even though she sometimes used the “tu”. I always thought this “vos” comes from old Spanish, from around the time Colon discovered america (~500 years ago) when everybody spoke like that to eachother, it was some kind of “polite” thing that reminds me of the middle-age or palace times :P
RuRoxLove said on January 17, 2005 00:08:
@Santi: I often heard “joven” spoken to young people in Catalunya y Barcelona, maybe that’s so because most people there prefer sreakin’ Catalonian language their native and a bit ignore Spanish language, I think so, maybe I’m wrong...
@Judith: in France and in the country where I’m from (Russia) it’s polite just to say “Vouz”/”Vi” to anybody in streets, shops etc. and to say “Tu”/”Ti” that’s almost impossible because it sounds unpolite “not respectable”. Is that the same in Spain or no?
Zerot said on January 17, 2005 04:34:
In Argentina we don´t use “Tu”, we use “Vos” instead. It´s informal.
arnie said on January 12, 2005 12:04:
We use Ud or Usted to people who aren’t so close to us (for instance unknown people, boss at work, king in your case, etc), it’s polite, and “tu/vos” to friends, partners, roommates, classmates, etc...
“tu” is used in Spain and other spanish countries
“vos” is the same but mainly used in latin american countries (not all of them)