Tutoyer

   To use the pronoun tu rather than vous - a concept that English-speakers often find hard to master correctly, tutoyer means addressing someone using the familiar singular tu form of the second person pronoun, rather than the more formal vous form. Fifty years ago, in formal family circles, children would address their parents using vous rather than tu; this practice has now more or less completely disappeared, and tutoiement is the common form of address within families and within groups of friends or workplace colleagues who know each other. The change is generational, and President Sarkozy has brought tutoiement right into the formal surroundings of presidential affairs. Vouvoiement (using vous) remains the norm in formal circumstances, when addressing a hierarchical superior, a stranger or someone with whom one has only occasional working relations - though the French are now quite used to speakers of other languages, notably English-speakers, getting it wrong.

   Usage in France varies from usage in Quebec, where speakers often use "tu" as a singular form of "vous" to address each other even in a business context or between strangers.