vous

Vous is the French second-person pronoun used for formal address and for all plural address. It functions as both subject and object pronoun, and it is used to show respect or deference when speaking to a single person, as well as to address a group.

As a subject pronoun, vous appears in sentences such as Vous êtes prêt. As a direct or indirect object pronoun, it appears in Je vous vois or Je vous parle. It also serves as the reflexive pronoun in Vous vous réveillez, Vous vous souvenez de moi?, and it participates in emphatic constructions like C’est vous qui avez gagné, to emphasize the person involved.

Historically, vous developed from the Latin vos as a plural form of address and came to be used as a respectful form for singular address in Early Modern French, while also serving the plural. Today, the same pronoun governs both singular polite and plural usage; the distinction between formal and informal address is expressed through the choice of tutoiement (tu) versus vouvoyer (vous), rather than distinct verb forms.

In written French, vous is usually lowercase, including at the start of sentences, though capitalization can appear in certain formal signs or letter headings as a courtesy convention. Verbs agree with the plural form when vous is used, yielding Vous êtes, vous avez, vous allez, and so on.

Notes: tu is the informal counterpart to vous; switching from vous to tu is called tutoiement, while the reverse is vouvoyer. Understanding when to use vous versus tu depends on social context, relationship, and cultural norms within French-speaking communities.