Polite: politeness
| Values: | Form |
Form: formal register
In Spanish, the pronouns usted and ustedes are used when addressing someone in a formal or respectful manner. This is usually done when communicating with people of higher social status, older age, or in situations that require a certain degree of formality (e.g., a business meeting, a formal event, or when speaking to a stranger).
Examples
- ¿Usted desea algo más? “Do you [formal] want anything else?”
- Ustedes deben completar el trabajo. “You [plural, formal] must complete the work.”
- ¿Cómo está usted? “How are you [formal]?”
However, it’s worth noting that the use of usted and ustedes can vary greatly across different Spanish-speaking regions. In some dialects, ustedes is used as the standard second person plural pronoun, replacing the more informal vosotros. Also, while usted and ustedes are traditionally associated with formality and respect, their usage can also be common in everyday conversation in certain regions, without necessarily implying a higher level of formality.
Therefore, in the UD Spanish treebanks, usted and ustedes are tagged with the feature Polite=Form to indicate
their typical association with formal register, but the interpretation of this feature in a specific context may depend
on regional usage and sociolinguistic factors.
Polite in other languages: [bej] [es] [hy] [pl] [u]