tu
tu - English
Particle
tu
- Pronunciation spelling of to, representing African-American Vernacular English.
tu - Afar
Pronunciation
- IPA: /ˈtu/, [ˈtʊ]
Noun
tú f
Declension
Declension of tú | ||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
absolutive | tú | |||||||||||||||||
predicative | tú | |||||||||||||||||
subjective | tú | |||||||||||||||||
genitive | tú | |||||||||||||||||
|
Synonyms
tu - Ainu
Pronunciation
- IPA: /tu/
Numeral
tu (Kana spelling トゥ)
tu - Albanian
Noun
tu ?
tu - Aromanian
Pronoun
tu
- you (singular)
Related terms
Preposition
tu
Synonyms
tu - Asturian
Pronoun
tu
- you (singular)
tu - Atong (India)
Pronunciation
- IPA: /tu/
Numeral
tu (Bengali script তু)
Synonyms
tu - Bambara
Noun
tu
Verb
tu
- to spit (out)
tu - Batuley
Adjective
tu
tu - Big Nambas
Pronunciation
- IPA: /tu/
Verb
tu
- give
- Patu pai ani!
- Give him a yam!.
tu - Bislama
Numeral
tu
Adverb
tu
tu - Borôro
Verb
tu
- to go
tu - Breton
Noun
tu m
tu - Catalan
Pronunciation
- (Balearic, Central, Valencian) IPA: /ˈtu/
Pronoun
tu
Declension
tu - Chilcotin
Noun
tu
tu - Chipewyan
Noun
tu
tu - Coatecas Altas Zapotec
Numeral
tu
tu - Cornish
Adjective
tu
tu - Czech
Pronunciation
- IPA: [ˈtu]
Adverb
tu
Pronoun
tu
- feminine accusative singular of ten
tu - Drung
Numeral
tu
tu - Ewe
Noun
tu (plural tuwo)
Verb
tu
tu - Fala
Determiner
tu f sg
- (Lagarteiru) Apocopic form of túa (“your”)
Usage notes
- Used in Lagarteiru before a feminine singular noun as part of a noun phrase.
tu - Fanagalo
Numeral
tu
tu - Fijian
Pronunciation
- IPA: /tu/
Verb
tu
tu - French
Pronunciation
Pronoun
tu (second person informal singular, plural vous, object te, emphatic toi, possessive determiner ton)
Usage notes
- When more pronouns are included in the same sentence, it is considered somewhat impolite to say the pronoun moi first, etiquette says it must be the last one, and toi must be said after a third person:
- Rose, toi et moi irons là-bas., “Rose, you and I will go there.”
- "Tu" is used to address one person in an informal situation. Older people tend to exclusively use it with familiar people, and do not use it with unfamiliar adults unless invited to; but younger people use this pronoun much more, using it together in any informal situation, even if they don't know each other. Using "vous" in this context will be seen as old-fashioned and distant.
- "Tu" is not typically used in formal settings such as business meetings and never in court, regardless of the relationship between the speaker and the listener.
- Using "vous" when "tu" would be more appropriate will come across as rigid and awkward; however, using "tu" when "vous" would be more appropriate could come over as deliberate disrespect. For this reason, as a rule of thumb, it is advised to use "vous" if in doubt, as it is "all-encompassing".
- Children are always addressed using "tu" – vous would come over as comical. In elementary, middle, and high schools, teachers address students using "tu", but students address teachers using vous. In higher education usage of vous becomes more common in both directions when in a formal context – though it's not as much of a deal as in, say, a court.
- In formal written communication to any adult, use vous. Not doing so may come over as unprofessional at best, deliberately disrespectful at worst.
As a final note: These come as natural to a person who grew up in a French-speaking country, but not necessarily for outsiders. If you are obviously a foreigner, people will normally be forgiving of such mistakes.
Inflection
Derived terms
Related terms
- vous (plural form and polite singular form)
Number | Person | Gender | Nominative (subject) | Accusative (direct complement) | Dative (indirect complement) | Locative (at) | Genitive (of) | Disjunctive (tonic) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Singular | First | — | je, j’ | me, m’ | — | — | moi | |
Second | — | tu | te, t’ | — | — | toi | ||
Third | Masculine | il | le, l’ | lui | y | en | lui | |
Feminine | elle | la, l’ | elle | |||||
Indeterminate | on1 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
Reflexive | — | se, s’4 | — | — | soi4 | |||
Plural | First | — | nous | nous | — | — | nous | |
Second | — | vous2 | vous2,3 | — | — | vous2 | ||
Third | Masculine | ils3 | les | leur | y | en | eux3 | |
Feminine | elles | elles |
- 1 Also used as the first person plural.
- 2 Also used as the polite singular form.
- 3 Also used when a group has both men and women.
- 4 Also used as third person plural reflexive.
Participle
tu (feminine tue, masculine plural tus, feminine plural tues)
- past participle of taire
Particle
tu
- (Quebec, informal) question marker
- C'est-tu possible ? ― Is it possible?
Anagrams
tu - Friulian
Pronoun
tu
tu - Gaulish
Pronoun
tū (plural suīs)
Inflection
- Nominative: tū
- Accusative: ti/te
- Dative: toi
tu - German
Pronunciation
- IPA: /tuː/
Verb
tu
- singular imperative of tun
tu - Iban
Pronunciation
- IPA: /tuʔ/
Determiner
tu
- this (what is being indicated)
Pronoun
tu
tu - Ido
Pronunciation
- IPA: /tu/
Pronoun
tu (second person singular)
Derived terms
tu - Interlingua
Pronunciation
- IPA: /tu/
Pronoun
tu (second person singular)
Inflection
subject | tu |
---|---|
object | te |
reflexive | te |
possessive | tu, tue |
Determiner
tu
- (possessive) your
tu - Italian
Pronunciation
- (most parts of Latium) IPA: /ˈtu/°
- Hyphenation: tù
Pronoun
tu (second person singular)
Usage notes
- Italian being a pro-drop language, subject pronouns are mostly omitted, both in the written and spoken language, as the inflected verb is conjugated by person. An example would be: Mangi una mela, which is much more common than Tu mangi una mela, where the subject can be inferred from the inflected form mangi ; similarly È carina instead of Lei è carina. The explicit usage of personal pronouns may sound redundant to a native speaker, except when it is used in order to emphasize the subject. (Tu mangi una mela could be interpreted as You are eating an apple and I am not)..
- The second-person pronoun in particular can sound confidential and, in some cases, even impolite.
tu - Japanese
Romanization
tu
tu - Kalasha
Pronoun
tu
- you (2nd-person personal pronoun)
tu - Kalo Finnish Romani
Pronoun
tu
- you (singular)
tu - Khumi Chin
Pronunciation
- IPA: /tu˩/
Noun
tu
tu - Ladino
Pronunciation
- IPA: /tu/
Pronoun
tu (Latin spelling)
- (informal) you (singular)
Adjective
tu (Latin spelling)
tu - Latgalian
Pronunciation
- IPA: [ˈtu]
- Hyphenation: tu
Pronoun
tu
Declension
tu - Latin
Pronunciation
- (Classical) IPA: /tuː/, [t̪uː]
- (Ecclesiastical) IPA: /tu/, [t̪uː]
Pronoun
tū (second person singular, possessive adjective tuus)
Usage notes
When used in the plural genitive, vestrī is used when it is the object of an action, especially when used with a gerund or gerundive. When used in such a construction, the gerund or gerundive takes on the masculine genitive singular. Vestrum is used as a partitive genitive, used in constructions such as (one of you).
Declension
Number | Singular | Plural | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Person | First | Second | Reflexive third | Third | First | Second | Reflexive third | Third | |||||
Case / Gender | Masc./ Fem./Neut. | Masc. | Fem. | Neut. | Masc./ Fem./Neut. | Masc. | Fem. | Neut. | |||||
Nominative | ego egō | tū | — | is | ea | id | nōs | vōs | — | eī iī | eae | ea | |
Genitive | meī | tuī | suī | eius | nostrī nostrum | vestrī vestrum | suī | eōrum | eārum | eōrum | |||
Dative | mihi | tibi | sibi | eī | nōbīs | vōbīs | sibi | eīs | |||||
Accusative | mē | tē | sē sēsē | eum | eam | id | nōs | vōs | sē sēsē | eōs | eās | ea | |
Ablative | mē | tē | sē sēsē | eō | eā | eō | nōbīs | vōbīs | sē sēsē | eīs | |||
Vocative | egō | tū | — | nōs | vōs | — |
Quotations
- For quotations using this term, see tu.
Derived terms
- quid tibi est
- tecum
- tepte
- tete
- tute
- tutemet
- tutimet
Descendants
- Aromanian: tu
- Corsican: tù
- Dalmatian: te
- Friulian: tu
- Istro-Romanian: tú
- Italian: tu
- Ladin: tu
- Megleno-Romanian: tu
- Mozarabic: ت (tu)
- Navarro-Aragonese: tu
- Aragonese: tu
- Neapolitan: tu
- Old French: tu
- Old Leonese:
- Old Occitan: tu
- Old Galician-Portuguese: tu
- Old Spanish: tu
- Romanian: tu
- Romansch: tu, tü
- Shona: tue
- Sicilian: tu
- Venetian: ti
tu - Latvian
Pronunciation
- IPA: [tu]
Pronoun
tu (personal, 2nd person singular)
- (informal in the singular) you; (dated) thou; second person pronoun, referring to the addressee
- vai tu nāksi man līdzi? ― are you coming with me?
- pieder tautai, tad tauta piederēs tev! ― belong to the people, and then the people will belong to you!
- būt uz tu ar kādu ― to be on intimate terms (lit. to be on thou) with someone
- (in the expression “ak tu...”) used to strengthen the meaning of a word or expression
- "ak tu to skaļo gaiļa rīkli!" māte priecājas ― "oh you loud rooster throat!" mother said happily
- ak tu mūžs! cūka izlauzusies no aizgalda! ― ah (you) life! the pig escaped from the pen!
Usage notes
The dative form tevim is used only optionally, with prepositions.
Declension
Related terms
- tavējs
tu - Lithuanian
Pronunciation
- IPA: /tʊ/
Pronoun
tù
- you (singular)
Declension
Derived terms
tu - Lower Sorbian
Pronunciation
- IPA: /tu/
Determiner
tu
- accusative feminine singular of ten
tu - Lower Tanana
Noun
tu
tu - Malay
Alternative forms
Pronunciation
- IPA: /tu/
Determiner
tu
- (colloquial) that (what is being indicated)
Pronoun
tu
- (colloquial) that (that thing)
tu - Mandarin
Romanization
tu
- Nonstandard spelling of tū.
- Nonstandard spelling of tú.
- Nonstandard spelling of tǔ.
- Nonstandard spelling of tù.
Usage notes
- Transcriptions of Mandarin into the Latin script often do not distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without indication of tone.
tu - Mezquital Otomi
Pronunciation
- IPA: /tù/
Verb
tu (intransitive)
Pronunciation
- IPA: /tǔ/
Verb
tu
Pronunciation
- IPA: /tǔ/
Verb
tu
tu - Middle English
Pronoun
tu
- Alternative form of þou (“thou”)
tu - Mirandese
Pronoun
tu
- you (the second-person singular pronoun)
tu - Neapolitan
Pronunciation
- IPA: /t̪u/
Pronoun
tu
tu - Nigerian Pidgin
Adverb
tu
Numeral
tu
tu - North Frisian
Preposition
tu
- (Mooring) to
tu - Northern Kurdish
Pronunciation
- IPA: [tʊ]
Pronoun
tu (second person singular)
Related terms
tu - Norwegian Nynorsk
Alternative forms
Preposition
tu
- (dialectal, Trøndelag, Eastern Norway) Nonstandard form of ut or (“out from, out of”).
tu - Occitan
Pronunciation
- IPA: /ty/
Pronoun
tu
- you (singular)
tu - Old Czech
Adverb
tu
Descendants
- Czech: tu
tu - Old English
Pronunciation
- IPA: /tuː/
Numeral
tū
- neuter nominative/accusative of tweġen
tu - Old Galician-Portuguese
Pronunciation
- IPA: /ˈtu/
Pronoun
tu
Descendants
tu - Old Irish
Pronoun
tu
- Alternative spelling of tú
Mutation
Old Irish mutation | ||
---|---|---|
Radical | Lenition | Nasalization |
tu | thu | tu pronounced with /d(ʲ)-/ |
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs. |
tu - Old Polish
Pronoun
tu
Descendants
- Polish: tu
tu - Phalura
Pronunciation
- IPA: /tu/
Pronoun
tu (personal, Perso-Arabic spelling توۡ)
- you (2sg nom subject or direct object)
tu - Polish
Pronunciation
- IPA: /tu/
- (Middle Polish) IPA: /ˈtu/
- Syllabification: tu
Adverb
tu
Particle
tu
- (colloquial, telephony) Used by the speaker to introduce themselves on the telephone; speaking
- Synonyms: tutaj, z tej strony
- Tu Janek! ― Janek speaking!
- Used by the speaker to indicate they are thinking.
- (colloquial) Expressive particle, usually of anger.
- (colloquial) Particle of uncertainty of success on the speaker's part.
Trivia
According to Słownik frekwencyjny polszczyzny współczesnej (1990), tu is one of the top 10,355 most used words in Polish, appearing 1-2 times in scientific texts, 42 times in news, 113 times in essays, 169 times in fiction, and 353 times in plays, totaling 779 times, making it the 57th most common word in a corpus of 500,000 words.
tu - Portuguese
Pronunciation
- (Brazil) IPA: /ˈtu/
- (Portugal) IPA: /ˈtu/
- Hyphenation: tu
Pronoun
tu
- (informal in Portugal, literary, archaic or regional in Brazil) you; thou (singular second person pronoun)
- (Brazil, colloquial, proscribed) second-person singular prepositional pronoun;
- Ela gosta de tu. ― She's into you.
Usage notes
- Tu has fallen out of use in some regions of Brazil, including most of the Southeast and the Centre-West, where “você” has taken its place. It is still very commonly used in various regions of the country though, such as most of Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul, parts of Paraná, Rio de Janeiro city and most of the Northeast and North regions. It should be noted that, in Rio de Janeiro, the pronoun is frequently employed interchangeably with você. Despite the media's preference for "você", the usage of "tu" seems to have been gaining ground throughout the last few decades in Rio (see , a linguistic research on the topic in Portuguese), being most frequent among younger speakers.
- According to grammars, tu should always take second person singular verbs, as is the case in Portugal and some parts of Brazil. However, in many Brazilian dialects which employ tu, it now takes third person singular verbs, like você.
Interjection
tu
- (onomatopoeia) the sound produced by a telephone after one of the callers hangs up
tu - Romani
Pronoun
tu
- you (singular)
Descendants
tu - Romanian
Pronunciation
- IPA: /tu/
Pronoun
tu
- you (singular), thou
- Synonyms: (semi-polite form) dumneata, (polite form) dumneavoastră
Declension
tu - Sassarese
Pronunciation
- IPA: /tu/
Pronoun
tu
- you (singular)
Related terms
tu - Savi
Pronoun
tu
- you; second-person singular and plural personal pronoun
tu - Scottish Gaelic
Pronunciation
- IPA: /ˈt̪ʰu/
Pronoun
tu (emphatic tusa)
- Form of thu (“thou, you”) used after verb forms ending in -n, -s or -dh.
tu - Serbo-Croatian
Adverb
tȗ (Cyrillic spelling ту̑)
- here (in this place)
- Tu nikad nismo bili. ― We have never been here.
- (proximal) here, over here (in the indicated place nearby)
- Eno ih tu! ― Here they are!
- over here (to, towards this place)
- Dođi tu! ― Come over here!
Synonyms
- (Croatia) tuj
Related terms
tu - Sicilian
Alternative forms
Pronunciation
- IPA: /tu/
Pronoun
tu (second person singular)
Inflection
nominative | tu |
---|---|
prepositional | tia |
object, reflexive | ti |
tu - Sinte Romani
Pronoun
tu
- you (singular)
tu - Slovene
Pronunciation
- IPA: /tú/
Adverb
tȕ
- here, in this place
Synonyms
tu - South Slavey
Alternative forms
- (Jean Marie River) ti
Pronunciation
- IPA: /tʰù/
- Hyphenation: tu
Noun
tu
Declension
singular | plural | |
---|---|---|
1st person | setué | naxetué |
2nd person | netué | |
3rd person1) | metué | gitué |
3rd person2) | gotué | |
4th person | yetué | |
reflexive | ɂedetué, detué | kedetué |
reciprocal | — | ɂełetué |
indefinite | ɂetué | |
areal | gotué | |
1) Used for a possessed object when the subject is third person human plural and object is singular. 2) Used when the previous condition doesn't apply. |
singular | plural | |
---|---|---|
1st person | setú | naxetú |
2nd person | netú | |
3rd person1) | metú | gitú |
3rd person2) | gotú | |
4th person | yetú | |
reflexive | ɂedetú, detú | kedetú |
reciprocal | — | ɂełetú |
indefinite | ɂetú | |
areal | gotú | |
1) Used for a possessed object when the subject is third person human plural and object is singular. 2) Used when the previous condition doesn't apply. |
Derived terms
tu - Spanish
Pronunciation
- IPA: /tu/ [t̪u]
- Syllabification: tu
- Homophone: tú
Determiner
tu sg (second person singular possessive of singular, of plural tus)
Usage notes
The forms tu and tus are only used before and within the noun phrase of the modified noun. In other positions, a form of tuyo is used instead:
- Son tus libros. ― They are your books.
- Son los libros tuyos. ― They are your books. (literally, “They are the books of yours.”)
Besides being a pronoun, because tu occurs in a noun phrase and expresses reference, it also grammatically classifies as a determiner (specifically a possessive/genitive determiner).
Related terms
possessor | preposed | postposed or standalone | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
possessee | possessee | ||||||
singular | plural | singular | plural | ||||
masculine | feminine | masculine | feminine | ||||
First person: | singular: | mi | mis | mío | mía | míos | mías |
plural: | (same as postposed/standalone) | nuestro | nuestra | nuestros | nuestras | ||
Second person (informal): | singular: | tu | tus | tuyo | tuya | tuyos | tuyas |
plural: | (same as postposed/standalone) | vuestro | vuestra | vuestros | vuestras | ||
Third person: | su | sus | suyo | suya | suyos | suyas |
tu - Sranan Tongo
Number
tu
Adverb
tu
tu - Sudovian
Pronoun
tu
tu - Swahili
Adverb
tu
tu - Swedish
Numeral
tu
Usage notes
Related terms
- ett, tu, tre
- itu
- på tu man hand
- tudela
Anagrams
tu - Tanacross
Noun
tu
tu - Tausug
Adjective
tu
- right (not left)
Noun
tu
Numeral
tu
Noun
tu
- a drop
Verb
tu (used in the form magtu)
- to drip
tu - Tày
Pronunciation
- (Thạch An – Tràng Định) IPA: [tu˧˧]
- (Trùng Khánh) IPA: [tu˦˥]
Noun
tu - Tejalapan Zapotec
Numeral
tu
tu - Timbe
Noun
tu
tu - Tocharian A
Pronoun
tu
tu - Tok Pisin
Numeral
tu
Usage notes
Used when counting; see also tupela.
Adverb
tu
tu - Upper Kuskokwim
Noun
tu
tu - Vietnamese
Pronunciation
- (Hà Nội) IPA: [tu˧˧]
- (Huế) IPA: [tʊw˧˧]
- (Hồ Chí Minh City) IPA: [tʊw˧˧]
Verb
tu
- (intransitive) to isolate oneself from other people to follow rules in a philosophy or religion
Derived terms
Verb
tu
tu - Volapük
Pronunciation
- IPA: /tu/
Adverb
tu
- (degree) too, excessively.
Derived terms
- tumödo
tu - Welsh
Pronunciation
Noun
tu m (uncountable)
Derived terms
Preposition
tu
Mutation
Welsh mutation | |||
---|---|---|---|
radical | soft | nasal | aspirate |
tu | du | nhu | thu |
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs. |
tu - Welsh Romani
Pronoun
tu
- you (singular)
tu - Yale
Noun
tu