Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word tu. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word tu, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say tu in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word tu you have here. The definition of the word tu will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition oftu, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
When more pronouns are included in the same sentence, it is considered somewhat impolite to say the pronoun moi first, etiquette says it must be the last one, and toi must be said after a third person:
Rose, toi et moi irons là-bas., “Rose, you and I will go there.”
"Tu" is used to address one person in an informal situation. Older people tend to exclusively use it with familiar people, and do not use it with unfamiliar adults unless invited to; but younger people use this pronoun much more, using it together in any informal situation, even if they don't know each other. Using "vous" in this context will be seen as old-fashioned and distant.
"Tu" is not typically used in formal settings such as business meetings and never in court, regardless of the relationship between the speaker and the listener.
Using "vous" when "tu" would be more appropriate will come across as rigid and awkward; however, using "tu" when "vous" would be more appropriate could come over as deliberate disrespect. For this reason, as a rule of thumb, it is advised to use "vous" if in doubt, as it is "all-encompassing".
Children are always addressed using "tu" – vous would come over as comical. In elementary, middle, and high schools, teachers address students using "tu", but students address teachers using vous*. In higher education usage of vous becomes more common in both directions.
In formal written communication to any adult, use vous. Not doing so may come over as unprofessional at best, deliberately disrespectful at worst.
However, depending on the region or type of school, other norms may be more used in place. For example, in Quebec (not the rest of Canada), it is more common for students to use "tu" with their teachers.[1]
Václav Blažek (2008) “Gaulish Language”, in Sborník prací filozofické fakulty brněnské univerzity / Studia minora facultatis philosophicae universitatis brunensis, page 59
Italian being a pro-drop language, subject pronouns are mostly omitted, both in the written and spoken language, as the inflected verb is conjugated by person. An example would be: Mangi una mela, which is much more common than Tu mangi una mela, where the subject can be inferred from the inflected form mangi ; similarly È carina instead of Lei è carina. The explicit usage of personal pronouns may sound redundant to a native speaker, except when it is used in order to emphasize the subject. (Tu mangi una mela could be interpreted as You are eating an apple and I am not)..
The second-person pronoun in particular can sound confidential and, in some cases, even impolite.
Third person pronominal forms used as formal terms of address to refer to second person subjects (with the first letter frequently capitalised as a sign of respect, and to distinguish them from third person subjects). Unlike the singular forms, the plural forms are mostly antiquated terms of formal address in the modern language, and second person plural pronouns are almost always used instead.
2
Also used as indefinite pronoun meaning “one”, and to form the passive.
When used in the plural genitive, vestrī is used when it is the object of an action, especially when used with a gerund or gerundive. When used in such a construction, the gerund or gerundive takes on the masculinegenitivesingular. Vestrum is used as a partitive genitive, used in constructions such as (one of you).
"tu", in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
"tu", in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
Latvian
Etymology
From Proto-Balto-Slavic*tū, Proto-Indo-European*túh₂. The Latviantevis comes from *tevens, with an -en-increased form showing an additional s by analogy with other genitive plurals. The dative form was originally closer to Old Prussiantebbei; the current form tev has a v due to influence from other declension forms, and the ending was reduced. The accusative tevi comes from *teven, with n by analogy to the accusative form of other words. The locativetevī was formed by analogy with i-stem nouns.[1]
Transcriptions of Mandarin into the Latin script often do not distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without indication of tone.
1867, Kleine Mittheilungen. Zur Sammlung der Sagen, Märchen und Lieder, der Sitten und Gebräuche der Herzogthümer Schleswig, Holstein und Lauenburg. Nachträge, herausgegeben von Dr. Handelmann in Jahrbücher für die Landeskunde der Herzogthümer Schleswig, Holstein und Lauenburg herausgegeben von der S. H. L. Gesellschaft für vaterländische Geschichte. Band IX., p. 126 (Von der Insel Amrum. Mitgetheilt von Chr. Johansen)
B. Sieradzka-Baziur, Ewa Deptuchowa, Joanna Duska, Mariusz Frodyma, Beata Hejmo, Dorota Janeczko, Katarzyna Jasińska, Krystyna Kajtoch, Joanna Kozioł, Marian Kucała, Dorota Mika, Gabriela Niemiec, Urszula Poprawska, Elżbieta Supranowicz, Ludwika Szelachowska-Winiarzowa, Zofia Wanicowa, Piotr Szpor, Bartłomiej Borek, editors (2011–2015), “tu”, in Słownik pojęciowy języka staropolskiego [Conceptual Dictionary of Old Polish] (in Polish), Kraków: IJP PAN, →ISBN
Henrik Liljegren, Naseem Haider (2011) “tu”, in Palula Vocabulary (FLI Language and Culture Series; 7), Islamabad, Pakistan: Forum for Language Initiatives, →ISBN
Turner, Ralph Lilley (1969–1985) “tu”, in A Comparative Dictionary of the Indo-Aryan Languages, London: Oxford University Press
(colloquial)particle of uncertainty of success on the speaker's part
Trivia
According to Słownik frekwencyjny polszczyzny współczesnej (1990), tu is one of the most used words in Polish, appearing 1-2 times in scientific texts, 42 times in news, 113 times in essays, 169 times in fiction, and 353 times in plays, each out of a corpus of 100,000 words, totaling 779 times, making it the 57th most common word in a corpus of 500,000 words.[1]
References
^ Ida Kurcz (1990) “tu”, in Słownik frekwencyjny polszczyzny współczesnej [Frequency dictionary of the Polish language] (in Polish), volume 2, Kraków, Warszawa: Polska Akademia Nauk. Instytut Języka Polskiego, page 614
Further reading
tu in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
“TU”, in Elektroniczny Słownik Języka Polskiego XVII i XVIII Wieku [Electronic Dictionary of the Polish Language of the XVII and XVIII Century], 30.03.2020
“TU”, in Elektroniczny Słownik Języka Polskiego XVII i XVIII Wieku [Electronic Dictionary of the Polish Language of the XVII and XVIII Century], 06.09.2008
Tu has fallen out of use in some regions of Brazil, including most of the Southeast and the Centre-West, where "você" has taken its place. It is still very commonly used in various regions of the country though, such as most of Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul, parts of Paraná, Rio de Janeiro city and most of the Northeast and North regions. It should be noted that in Rio de Janeiro the pronoun is frequently employed interchangeably with você. Despite the media's preference for "você", the usage of "tu" seems to have been gaining ground throughout the last few decades in Rio (see , a linguistic research on the topic in Portuguese), being most frequent among younger speakers.
According to grammars, tu should always take second person singular verbs, as is the case in Portugal and some parts of Brazil. However, in most Brazilian dialects which employ tu, it now takes third person singular verbs, like você.
*)sibh and sibhse also act as the polite singular pronouns. **) To mark a direct object of a verbal noun, the derivatives of gam are used. 1) used when following a verb ending in -n, -s or -dh.
The forms tu and tus are only used before and within the noun phrase of the modified noun. In other positions, a form of tuyo is used instead:
Son tus libros. ― They are your books.
Son los libros tuyos. ― They are your books. (literally, “They are the books of yours.”)
Besides being a pronoun, because tu occurs in a noun phrase and expresses reference, it also grammatically classifies as a determiner (specifically a possessive/genitive determiner).
^ “tù” in Hock et al., Altlitauisches etymologisches Wörterbuch 2.0 (online, 2020–): “nar. prn. tu du”.
Swahili
Etymology
(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “Maybe Proto-Bantu, see BLR3 4837?”)
tu was the old neuter of två. Thus, one would say "ett hus" (one house), "tu hus" (two houses). The equivalent for the number three was try or tri, which is likewise archaic.
Lục Văn Pảo, Hoàng Tuấn Nam (2003) Hoàng Triều Ân, editor, Từ điển chữ Nôm Tày [A Dictionary of (chữ) Nôm Tày] (in Vietnamese), Hanoi: Nhà xuất bản Khoa học Xã hội
Hoàng Văn Ma, Lục Văn Pảo, Hoàng Chí (2006) Từ điển Tày-Nùng-Việt [Tay-Nung-Vietnamese dictionary] (in Vietnamese), Hanoi: Nhà xuất bản Từ điển Bách khoa Hà Nội
Lương Bèn (2011) Từ điển Tày-Việt [Tay-Vietnamese dictionary] (in Vietnamese), Thái Nguyên: Nhà Xuất bản Đại học Thái Nguyên
1989, Buk Baibel long Tok Pisin, Port Moresby: Bible Society of Papua New Guinea, Jenesis1:15:
God i mekim kamap tupela bikpela lait. Bikpela em san bilong givim lait long de, na liklik em mun bilong givim lait long nait. Na God i mekim kamap ol sta tu.
Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Welsh. All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.
Further reading
R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “tu”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies
This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “Not mentioned at all by Ratliff. Probably native Hmongic; perhaps distantly related to Old Chinese填 (OC *diːn, *diːns, *tin, *tins, “to fill”)?”