Why does English have no formal you?

Why Doesn’t English Have Formal Pronouns? English is a Germanic language, meaning it evolved from the same language as German. Going all the way back to Old English, there were two second-person pronouns: þū for the singular “you” and ge for the plural “you.” Over time, these evolved into thou and ye, respectively.

What is the polite form of you in English?

Declension

	Nominative
1st person	plural	we
2nd person	singular informal	thou
singular formal	ye, you
plural

What is the formal form of you?

usted
Formal vs. Informal “You”

	singular:	plural:
first person:	yo	nosotros, nosotras
second person, informal:	tú	vosotros, vosotras
second person, formal:	usted	ustedes
third person:	él, ella	ellos, ellas

Does English have a polite form?

English people are very polite, so they always use “you” which is the formal form. The informal is “thee” (objective) and “thou” (subjective).

Is it better to be polite or direct when speaking English?

Here is a good rule to keep in mind about English; it is often better to be polite than it is to be direct. English speakers often use more words than are necessary to say ‘yes’ and ‘no’ because they are adding polite words to the simple messages they are trying to get across.

Is it polite to say “you” in French?

Use the polite form and you might give them a complex about how old they look. This is a dilemma encountered not only in French, but in many of the world’s major languages, from Spanish to Russian to Arabic. In English, however, any individual whom you address is simply “you,” whether it’s the president or your pet rabbit.

Is there a distinction between polite and polite in PIE?

Update: we don’t know if there was any politeness distinction in PIE. In any case, the distinctions that exist in the modern European languages are not inherited from PIE, since the oldest recorded IE languages (Latin, Greek, Sanskrit) did not have separate polite pronouns.

Is it rude to say ‘no’ in English?

If you are too direct in saying ‘no’ in English this can be considered rude. Let’s take a look today at some different, polite, ways to say ‘no.’ You might want to practice these new expressions often, so you don’t have to worry about appearing rude when speaking English to native speakers.