Why do you have Tu es qui for informal and Vous etes qu for formal?

AmyA0Kwiziq community member

Why do you have Tu es qui for informal and Vous etes qu for formal?

They seem like two completely different questions except the "qui" on the end of it.
Asked 6 years ago
AurélieKwiziq team memberCorrect answer
Bonjour Amy !

Following your question, I've decided to amend this lesson to make the distinction between formal and informal forms clearer :)

The fact is that in French, we have two ways of saying "you", which can be used in three different contexts:
- "tu" is to address *one* person you know well, i.e. "informal" and "singular"
- "vous" is to address either: - *a group* of people, i.e. "plural"
OR - *one* person in a professional context, or that you don't know
well, i.e. "formal" and "singular"

Also note that in French, verbs change for each different person (I, you, he, she...), hence the completely different morphology of the two questions :)

I also added a link to our related lesson:


I hope that's helpful!
À bientôt !

Why do you have Tu es qui for informal and Vous etes qu for formal?

They seem like two completely different questions except the "qui" on the end of it.

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