Tu, Você and O Senhor: Choosing the Right 'You' in Portuguese

Portuguese has several ways to say "you", and the choice depends on the country, the region and the relationship.

The main forms

Form	Use
você	the everyday "you" in most of Brazil; more formal or neutral in Portugal
tu	informal "you", common in Portugal and parts of Brazil
o senhor / a senhora	polite "you" for older or senior people
vocês	plural "you" in Brazil
vós	old plural form, now rare

Brazil

In most of Brazil, você is used with almost everyone: friends, colleagues, strangers. Tu is used in some regions, sometimes with third-person verb forms.

• Você quer café? — Would you like coffee?
• O senhor / a senhora is used to show respect to elders or people in formal roles.

Portugal

In Portugal, tu is used with friends, family and people your own age, and você can sound distant or even abrupt. It is more polite to use the person's name, title or o senhor / a senhora, or simply drop the pronoun.

• Tu queres café? — Do you want coffee? (informal)
• O senhor quer café? — Would you like coffee? (respectful)
• Quer café? — Would you like coffee? (neutral, with no pronoun)

Verb forms

Verbs change with the pronoun:

Pronoun	Example: falar
eu	falo
tu	falas
você, ele, ela	fala
nós	falamos
vocês, eles, elas	falam

Learners often start with você forms in Brazil, and add tu forms if they need them.

Being polite

1. Listen to how locals address you, and follow their lead.
2. Use titles such as doutor, professora, dona with people you don't know, where appropriate.
3. Add "por favor" and "obrigado/obrigada".
4. Use "o senhor / a senhora" with older people until invited to be less formal.

Reciprocity

Being asked to use tu or você is a sign of friendliness: Podes tratar-me por tu. (You can call me tu.)

Tips

• In Brazil, start with você.
• In Portugal, avoid você with strangers; use the verb alone or a title.
• Use the dictionary to check verb forms.

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