Module 6 of 8
Tu, vous, and reading the situation
Choosing a register before you have the grammar for it.
French makes you choose how you are addressing someone before you have said anything else, and the choice is audible to everyone present. Tu is for one person you already have an informal relationship with. Vous is for someone you do not, and for any group of people regardless of how well you know them. Comment ça va ? and Comment allez-vous ? are the same question asked in those two different settings.
The safe default is vous for anyone in a role — staff, a lecturer, a stranger, anyone behind a desk — and to let them move you to tu. Being invited down is a friendly, unremarkable moment. Assuming it upwards is the one people notice. This is a social rule rather than a grammatical one, which is why you can follow it correctly at this level: the greeting carries it on its own, long before you can conjugate anything.
Played by your device’s own French voice. It is a synthetic voice, not a recording of a teacher — close enough to learn the shape of a word, not close enough to copy exactly.
- Salut ! Comment ça va ?Hi! How is it going? (informal)
- Ça va bien, merci.I am well, thank you.
- Bonjour. Comment allez-vous ?Hello. How are you? (formal)
- Très bien, merci. Et vous ?Very well, thank you. And you?
- Bonsoir.Good evening.
- Bonjour, madame.Hello, madam.
- Bonjour, monsieur.Hello, sir.
- Salut, à bientôt !Bye, see you soon!
Start with vous for anyone in a role and let them invite you to tu. Getting the register wrong is more noticeable than getting the grammar wrong.