você

See also: voce, voće, -voce, and Voce

Portuguese

Etymology

Syncope of vosmecê, elision of vossemecê, contraction of Old Galician-Portuguese vossa mercee (literally “your mercy”) (today's mercê) from Latin vostra + mercēs. Compare with Spanish usted (from vuestra merced (literally “your mercy”)) and Catalan vostè.

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /voˈse/

 

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /vɔˈse/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /vɔˈse/
  • (Northern Portugal) IPA^(key): /bɔˈse/

• (Brazil, informal) IPA^(key): /se/
  • Homophones: cê, sê
  • Homophone: ser (with -r dropping)
• Rhymes: -e
• Hyphenation: vo‧cê

Pronoun

você m or f by sense (plural vocês)

2. (formal or semi-formal in Portugal, informal or formal in Brazil) second-person singular personal pronoun; you

   Synonyms: o senhor, tu

   • 2003, J. K. Rowling, Lia 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!

4. indefinite 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.

Usage notes

• In Portugal and some parts of Brazil, você represents an intermediate degree of formality between tu (familiar) and o senhor (very formal), where it is generally used in situations of little intimacy.
• In most parts of Brazil (especially in 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, much like the English thou. In Rio Grande do Sul, Rio de Janeiro, Santa Catarina, Brasília and most Northeastern States, tu is used in very informal situations, though it usually uses the third-person singular conjugation of verbs, similar to many Spanish-speaking countries with voseo.
• 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 mostly archaic in modern Portuguese with the exception of some Northern Portuguese dialects.
• Você and vocês, despite being 2nd-person pronouns, always take 3rd-person verbs.

Quotations

For quotations using this term, see Citations:você.

Alternative forms

• vossa mercê (archaic)
• vossemecê (archaic)
• vosmecê (archaic, rural areas of Brazil)
• voncê (archaic, rural areas of Brazil)
• sossemecê (obsolete)
• mecê (rural areas of Brazil)
• vancê (rural areas of Brazil)
• vacê (rural areas of Brazil)
• vossuncê (rural areas of Brazil)
• vassuncê (rural areas of Brazil)
• suncê (rural areas of Brazil)
• ocê (eye dialect, rural areas of Brazil)
• cê (slang, Brazil)
• vc (spelling Internet slang, Brazil)
• se (spelling Internet slang, Brazil)

Synonyms

• (indefinite pronoun): reflexive third-person pronouns (se, si, consigo)

Descendants

• → Ambonese Malay: ose

See also

Portuguese personal pronouns

number	person		nominative (subject)	accusative (direct object)	dative (indirect object)	prepositional	prepositional with com	non-declining
singular	first		eu	me		mim	comigo	—
	second		tu	te		ti	contigo	você o senhor m a senhora f
	third	m	ele	o (lo, no)	lhe	ele	com ele	o mesmo
		f	ela	a (la, na)		ela	com ela	a mesma
plural	first		nós	nos		nós	connosco (Portugal) conosco (Brazil)	a gente
	second		vós	vos		vós	convosco com vós	vocês os senhores m as senhoras f
	third	m	eles	os (los, nos)	lhes	eles	com eles	os mesmos
		f	elas	as (las, nas)		elas	com elas	as mesmas
reflexive third / indefinite			—	se		si	consigo	o mesmo etc. (reflexive)