#les formalités
upbeat sleet
pastel temple
Where did you get that number 2 is formal? It’s not.
fickle bough
Ma professeure. I pressed her for more details and she said that I wanted proper formal I could with either the two (decreasing formality):
- Comment vous-allez
- Comment allez vous
I'm confused. She also said that 1 and 2 at the top are kind of formal too, but not something you'd use to talk to your boss.
3 is an every day thing and 4 is casual with friends and such.
My concern: If I have an exam and it told me to write "how are you?" in formal French, what exactly is the baseline for "formal"? Is it just when I start using formal pronoun like vous?
pastel temple
Ma professeure. I pressed her for more details and she said that I wanted prope...
Thing is I would disagree with her on « comment vous allez » being the most formal
pastel temple
My concern: If I have an exam and it told me to write "how are you?" in formal F...
When we're talking formality, we have to separate between politeness (tu/vous) and oral context (inversion, est-ce que, intonation)
This gives us six combinations
For inversion, it's seen more as a written phenomenon and not an oral one; people don't consciously choose inversion. Because written material tends to be placed in contexts that are formal (emails and whatnot), using « vous » would make it really formal. As for « tu », we almost never see this. Using « tu » with inversion is seen where we want to express closeness but in a written setting. Games are an example of this.
For est-ce que, it's truly the neutral and can used with both pronouns without any worry.
For intonation, it's definitely really oral. Because of that, we see it as informal but not impolite. It's something you'd use in the streets and not in an official context. You can use either pronoun here.
Basically,
Inversion + vous = Super formal, written material
Inversion + tu = Written material that is often close, think of games
Est-ce que + tu/vous = Neutral
Intonation + tu/vous = Oral context, can be either polite or familiar
So when we have something like « Vous y allez comment ? », we can think of it as me talking to my professor or someone of higher social standing in the street
It remains informal but at least there's some politeness
Which is why I disagree with « Comment vous allez » being formal because within the context of the question, it isn't formal
At least it's not more formal than est-ce que
fickle bough
Merci beaucoup. Huh... she did mention a difference in written and oral, but didn't dive into it in the moment.
But going back to the concern:
If I have an exam and it told me to write "how are you?" in formal French,
Would both "Comment allez-vous" and "Comment vous y allez" be acceptable?
pastel temple
No
« Comment allez-vous ? »
I said the wrong thing about « vous y allez » it should just be « vous allez »
but anyway, it would be « Comment allez-vous ? »
fickle bough
Merci!
pastel temple
Something interesting you might suss out in formal interviews
When it comes to pre-written questions, the interviewer will use inversion or est-ce que
but for follow-ups, they will use either est-ce que or intonation
tidal cipher
@fickle bough how do you title your question?
fickle bough
you just type .tr newtitlehere
tidal cipher
Thank you sir
Haha
I’m realizing I was just ignoring the bot and it gave me instructions didn’t it
I usually pride myself in being more observant than this
tidal cipher
you just type .tr newtitlehere
Does this mean I can change your title
.tr <mwehehe (aussi les formalités)>
Dangit
.tr sad
fickle bough
That would be such a troll move 😛