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French has a T-V distinction in the second person singular. That is, it uses two different sets of pronouns: tu and vous and their various forms. The usage of tu and vous depends on the kind of relationship (formal or informal) that exists between the speaker and the person with whom they are speaking and the age differences between these subjects. [1]
French, like English, uses relative pronouns to introduce relative clauses. The relative pronoun used depends on its grammatical role (such as subject or direct object) within the relative clause, as well as on the gender and number of the antecedent and whether the antecedent represents a person.
For some, the English you keeps everybody at a distance, although not to the same extent as V pronouns in other languages. [4] For others, you is a default neutral pronoun that fulfils the functions of both T and V without being the equivalent of either, [5] so an N-V-T framework is needed, where N indicates neutrality. [6]
Old Dutch did not appear to have a T–V distinction. Thu was used as the second-person singular, and gi as the second-person plural. In early Middle Dutch, influenced by Old French usage, the original plural pronoun gi (or ji in the north) came to be used as a respectful singular pronoun, creating a T–V distinction.
However, the simple past is rarely used in informal French, and the imperfect subjunctive is rarely used in modern French. Verbs in the finite moods (indicative, imperative, subjunctive, and conditional) are also conjugated to agree with their subjects in person (first, second, or third) and number (singular or plural).
In French, les objets trouvés, short for le bureau des objets trouvés, means the lost-and-found, the lost property. outré out of the ordinary, unusual. In French, it means outraged (for a person) or exaggerated, extravagant, overdone (for a thing, esp. a praise, an actor's style of acting, etc.); in that second meaning, belongs to "literary ...
Informal French [ edit ] Elision of the second-person singular subject pronoun tu , before the verbs beginning with a vowel or mute h (silent h), and of the particle of negation ne , is very common in informal speech, but is avoided in careful speech and never used in formal writing: [ citation needed ]
Whereas European varieties of French use the verbs monter and descendre for "to get in" and "to get out" of a vehicle (lit. "to mount" and "to dismount", as one does with a horse or a carriage), the Québécois variety in its informal register tends to use embarquer and débarquer, a result of Quebec's navigational heritage. [citation needed]