My late employer, Bill Buckley--who had been on friendly terms with Shawn for years, and who would, as he put it, "
tutoyer" anyone he knew at all well--fell in with "Mr." Shawn's formality and always so addressed him.
Je dois t'avouer, cher lecteur, que je ne me suis jamais pose la question...Je m'excuse de te
tutoyer sans ton consentement.
Lors de son entree a l'Universite Laval, Annie (parents de langue maternelle francaise) a l'impression de decouvrir de nouvelles facons de faire : << a l'ecole, de
tutoyer les professeurs, moi ca m'a completement ...
For instance, in French and German, verbs derived from pronouns, French
tutoyer < tu, toi, German duzen < du 'to address using the familiar pronoun'; and French vouvoyer < vous + ending analogical to
tutoyer, German siezen < Sie 'to address using the polite pronoun', have explicit morphology that distinguishes them from the corresponding pronouns.
On the Mistral I might have been intimidated, but here, on linguistic home ground, I swallowed once and said, "Pardonnez-moi; vous etes francaise?" (Speaking was enough;
tutoyer was out of the question.) Her response delighted me, and we conversed for an eternity that must have lasted 180 seconds, until she commented that my accent was rather unusual--was I from the Midi?
Je vous ai permis de me
tutoyer, je me demande pourquoi vous n'en profitez pas.
(18) Avant lui, le medecin de garde venu en urgence s'etait permis de la
tutoyer.
elle vous parle, et elle se perd, s'arrete tout court, ne sait plus ou elle en est, se fache, et vous appelle grosse bete, stupide, imbecile, si vous ne la remettez sur la voie: elle est tantot familiere jusqu'a
tutoyer, tantot imperieuse et fiere jusqu'au dedain ...