What this is about
Portuguese has several words for you, and picking the right one is a social skill, not just grammar. Using the wrong one is never a disaster — Brazilians are forgiving — but knowing the system makes you sound natural and polite from day one.
The three levels
| word | who it's for | verb form |
|---|---|---|
| você | the default in Brazil — friends, colleagues, shop staff, most strangers | same as ele/ela: você fala |
| o senhor / a senhora | respect — older people, clients, authority, anyone you'd call "sir/ma'am" | same as ele/ela: o senhor fala |
| tu | regional — the South (Rio Grande do Sul), parts of the Northeast and North | colloquially with the você-form: tu fala (standard tu falas sounds bookish in Brazil) |
When to use which
| O senhor quer um café? | waiter to an older customer |
| De onde você é? | meeting someone your age |
| A senhora pode me ajudar? | asking an older woman for help |
| Vocês vêm hoje? | plural — vocês works for EVERY group |
Exceptions & details
1 · Grandmothers and parents: many Brazilians use a senhora with their own mother or grandmother as affection, not distance.
2 · tu in Rio: cariocas mix tu into casual speech (tu viu isso?) but always with the você-verb.
3 · Plural is easy: there is no formal/informal split in the plural — vocês covers everyone; os senhores / as senhoras exists but is very formal.
4 · The old pronoun vós is dead — you'll only meet it in the Bible and old poetry.
Practise this chapter
9 pool questions plus generated ones — 20 fresh practice questions, reshuffled every visit, inside the grammar library.
Practise você, tu, o senhor — 20 questions →This chapter is taught in Lição 1 of the course — free, no account needed. Rumo is a complete Brazilian Portuguese course, A1 to B2; level A1 is free.