tutoyer

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French tutoyer.

Verb

tutoyer (third-person singular simple present tutoyers, present participle tutoyering, simple past and past participle tutoyered)

1. (transitive) To address (someone) in French using the familiar second-person pronoun tu; to thou.
   • 1862, The Edinburgh Review: Or Critical Journal, volume 115, page 132:

     As I had begged Goethe to tutoyer me, he sent me a message to say, I must really remain more than the two days I had named, otherwise he should never get into the way of doing so.

   • 1866, William Stamer, Recollections of a Life of Adventure, volume 1, page 83:

     […] Corporal Cornichon, walking straight up to the bar, "tutoyering" me all the time in the most horridly familiar manner, clapped me on the back, and asked me to take a glass of cognac with him.

Synonyms

• tutoy

Coordinate terms

• vousvoyer, vouvoy

Translations

to address (someone) using the familiar second-person pronoun — see thou

See also

• T-V distinction
• thou ~ you

French

Etymology

From tu + -oyer with euphonic t; compare the Icelandic þúa, German duzen and English thou. Cognate with Spanish tutear and Romanian tutui.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ty.twa.je/

• audio

  (file)

Verb

tutoyer

1. (transitive) to thou (to address (someone) using the informal second-person pronoun tu rather than the formal vous)

   Antonym: vouvoyer

2. (colloquial) to be familiar with, to be close to something

   Tutoyer la mort. ― To be no stranger to death

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 tutoyer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	tutoyer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	tutoyant /ty.twa.jɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		tutoyé /ty.twa.je/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	tutoie /ty.twa/	tutoies /ty.twa/	tutoie /ty.twa/	tutoyons /ty.twa.jɔ̃/	tutoyez /ty.twa.je/	tutoient /ty.twa/
	imperfect	tutoyais /ty.twa.jɛ/	tutoyais /ty.twa.jɛ/	tutoyait /ty.twa.jɛ/	tutoyions /ty.twaj.jɔ̃/	tutoyiez /ty.twaj.je/	tutoyaient /ty.twa.jɛ/
	past historic2	tutoyai /ty.twa.je/	tutoyas /ty.twa.ja/	tutoya /ty.twa.ja/	tutoyâmes /ty.twa.jam/	tutoyâtes /ty.twa.jat/	tutoyèrent /ty.twa.jɛʁ/
	future	tutoierai /ty.twa.ʁe/	tutoieras /ty.twa.ʁa/	tutoiera /ty.twa.ʁa/	tutoierons /ty.twa.ʁɔ̃/	tutoierez /ty.twa.ʁe/	tutoieront /ty.twa.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	tutoierais /ty.twa.ʁɛ/	tutoierais /ty.twa.ʁɛ/	tutoierait /ty.twa.ʁɛ/	tutoierions /ty.twa.ʁjɔ̃/	tutoieriez /ty.twa.ʁje/	tutoieraient /ty.twa.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	tutoie /ty.twa/	tutoies /ty.twa/	tutoie /ty.twa/	tutoyions /ty.twaj.jɔ̃/	tutoyiez /ty.twaj.je/	tutoient /ty.twa/
	imperfect2	tutoyasse /ty.twa.jas/	tutoyasses /ty.twa.jas/	tutoyât /ty.twa.ja/	tutoyassions /ty.twa.ja.sjɔ̃/	tutoyassiez /ty.twa.ja.sje/	tutoyassent /ty.twa.jas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	tutoie /ty.twa/	—	tutoyons /ty.twa.jɔ̃/	tutoyez /ty.twa.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

• tutoiement

See also

• T-V distinction

Further reading

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