vouvoyer

French

Alternative forms

• vousoyer
• voussoyer

Etymology

An alteration of voussoyer (), influenced by the v in vous and the form of tutoyer.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vu.vwa.je/

Verb

vouvoyer

1. (transitive) to you (to address someone using the formal pronoun vous rather than the informal tu)

   Antonym: tutoyer

Conjugation

This verb is part of a large group of -er verbs that conjugate like noyer or ennuyer. These verbs always replace the 'y' with an 'i' before a silent 'e'.

Conjugation of vouvoyer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	vouvoyer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	vouvoyant /vu.vwa.jɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		vouvoyé /vu.vwa.je/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	vouvoie /vu.vwa/	vouvoies /vu.vwa/	vouvoie /vu.vwa/	vouvoyons /vu.vwa.jɔ̃/	vouvoyez /vu.vwa.je/	vouvoient /vu.vwa/
	imperfect	vouvoyais /vu.vwa.jɛ/	vouvoyais /vu.vwa.jɛ/	vouvoyait /vu.vwa.jɛ/	vouvoyions /vu.vwaj.jɔ̃/	vouvoyiez /vu.vwaj.je/	vouvoyaient /vu.vwa.jɛ/
	past historic2	vouvoyai /vu.vwa.je/	vouvoyas /vu.vwa.ja/	vouvoya /vu.vwa.ja/	vouvoyâmes /vu.vwa.jam/	vouvoyâtes /vu.vwa.jat/	vouvoyèrent /vu.vwa.jɛʁ/
	future	vouvoierai /vu.vwa.ʁe/	vouvoieras /vu.vwa.ʁa/	vouvoiera /vu.vwa.ʁa/	vouvoierons /vu.vwa.ʁɔ̃/	vouvoierez /vu.vwa.ʁe/	vouvoieront /vu.vwa.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	vouvoierais /vu.vwa.ʁɛ/	vouvoierais /vu.vwa.ʁɛ/	vouvoierait /vu.vwa.ʁɛ/	vouvoierions /vu.vwa.ʁjɔ̃/	vouvoieriez /vu.vwa.ʁje/	vouvoieraient /vu.vwa.ʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	vouvoie /vu.vwa/	vouvoies /vu.vwa/	vouvoie /vu.vwa/	vouvoyions /vu.vwaj.jɔ̃/	vouvoyiez /vu.vwaj.je/	vouvoient /vu.vwa/
	imperfect2	vouvoyasse /vu.vwa.jas/	vouvoyasses /vu.vwa.jas/	vouvoyât /vu.vwa.ja/	vouvoyassions /vu.vwa.ja.sjɔ̃/	vouvoyassiez /vu.vwa.ja.sje/	vouvoyassent /vu.vwa.jas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	vouvoie /vu.vwa/	—	vouvoyons /vu.vwa.jɔ̃/	vouvoyez /vu.vwa.je/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Derived terms

• vouvoiement

See also

• T-V distinction

Further reading

• “vouvoyer”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.