Portuguese

Pronoun

você m, f ‎(plural vocês)

1. (formal in Portugal, informal or semi-formal in Brazil) second-person singular personal pronoun; you
   • 2003, J. K. Rowling, Lya Wyler, Harry Potter e a Ordem da Fênix, Rocco, page 227:

     Pensei que você tivesse dito que ela estava só mandando você escrever!

     I thought that you had said that she was just ordering you to write!

   Os livros foram dados a você.‎

   The books were given to you.

2. indefinite personal pronoun; you; one

   Você pode levar um cavalo até a água, mas não pode fazê-lo beber.‎

   You can take a horse to the water, but you can’t make it drink.

Quotations

For usage examples of this term, see Citations:você.

Alternative forms

• vossemecê (obsolete)
• vosmecê (archaic)
• cê (slang, Brazil)
• ocê (eye dialect, rural areas of Brazil)
• vc (Internet slang)

Synonyms

• (second-person singular personal pronoun): o senhor, tu
• (indefinite pronoun): reflexive third-person pronouns (se, si, consigo)

Usage notes

• In Portugal and some parts of Brazil, você represents an intermediate degree of formality between tu (familiar) and o senhor (very formal) and should be used in situations of little intimacy.
• In some parts of Brazil (mainly the Southeast, with the exception of some cities), você has replaced tu as the informal second person singular pronoun, and tu is relegated to archaic, poetic and religious usages. In Rio de Janeiro, tu is used in very informal situations, though it uses the third-person singular conjugation of verbs.
• Teu, te, and to a lesser extent ti and contigo, are widely used alongside você in Brazilian dialects that don’t use tu.
• Its plural form, vós is rarely used in Brazilian Portuguese and is now mostly confined to some northern dialects of European Portuguese.
• Você and vocês, despite being 2nd-person pronouns, should always take 3rd-person verbs.

See also