Why we have the tu and vous in the same sentence?

bb C.C1Kwiziq community member

Why we have the tu and vous in the same sentence?

The 5th example in this lesson, "Tu nous appelleras quand vous aurez pris vos billets."


Why we mix the "tu" and "vous" in one sentence?

Asked 2 years ago
CécileKwiziq team memberCorrect answer

Hi Bb, 

Vous in French can be the polite 'you' or representing several people which is the case here.

You will call us (one person you say 'tu' to) when you ( several people ) have bought your tickets.

https://kwiziq.learnfrenchwithalexa.com/revision/grammar/tu-and-vous-are-used-for-three-types-of-you

 

Bonne Continuation !

Maarten K.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

I interpret this as the situation of talking to a single person ‘tu’ about ringing (us) after tickets have been bought (see my note below) for a group of people which includes the listener but not the ‘speakers’. 

 In English we might confirm this by saying a contorted mouthful like  ‘you will ring us when you have (bought) the tickets for all of you’, as we don’t have the luxury of separate words for singular and plural ‘you’ (I am excluding ‘youse’, which is Australian slang !)

Note: the English translation of this sentence seems very literal - at least in my part of the world, we would never use ‘taken tickets’ in this context. Either just ‘have’ or ‘have bought’ or similar is more natural in my view. Given it is at B2 level, these suggested free translations should be understood by most doing the lesson, but a note that it is a free translation rather than literal would clarify. 

Why we have the tu and vous in the same sentence?

The 5th example in this lesson, "Tu nous appelleras quand vous aurez pris vos billets."


Why we mix the "tu" and "vous" in one sentence?

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