Cultural Post 2

Jocelyne Rodriguez


Second Cultural Post:  Formality and Informality in Target Language

Formality in Portuguese varies depending on which Portuguese you are learning. In European Portuguese- which is the formal language of instruction in other Portuguese-speaking countries (with the exception of Brazil)- there are two forms of the second person. Informal second person uses ‘tu’ while formal second person uses ‘voce’. When using European Portuguese one has to be to decide which form of the second person is most appropriate to use. I, however, been mostly learning Brazilian Portuguese which only uses ‘voce’. Thanks to this I do not have to worry as much about deciding which form of the second person is most appropriate for what scenarios. In Brazilian Portuguese, you can express extra formality by using phrases like ‘o senhor’ to address the individual.

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