vostè
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Catalan
Alternative forms
Etymology
Contraction of vostra (“your”) mercè (“mercy”). First attested in the 16th century.[1]
Pronunciation
Pronoun
vostè (strong)
Usage notes
- Vostè is a very polite form of address for a single person. It is used with the third-person singular form of the verb. (Compare the polite usage of você in Portuguese and usted in Spanish.) Traditionally it was only used with judges, doctors, and so on, with vós being used in most polite situations, for example with elderly people, and tu being used in informal situations. Nowadays, tu is the most common form, even in formal contexts, and vostè is becoming more common than vós because of contact with Spanish. In Valencian, this word is usually spelled vosté, since it has /e/ instead of /ɛ/.
Declension
Catalan personal pronouns and clitics
References
- ^ “vostè”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
Further reading
- “vostè” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
- “vostè” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
- “vostè” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.