tutoyer

[ too-twah-yey; French ty-twa-yey ]

verb (used with object)

tutoyered or tutoyed [too-twah-, yeyd],tutoyering [too-twah-, yey, -ing].

1. to address (someone), especially in French, using the familiar forms of the pronoun “you” rather than the more formal forms; address familiarly.

Word History and Origins

Origin of tutoyer¹

1690–1700; < French, to address as tu and toi (the familiar singular forms for “you” in French)

Example Sentences

“I am Dominique. Just call me Dominique. Not Madame—Dominique. I will tutoyer you. You can tutoyer me, too,” she says, indicating that we’re all to use the informal form of address.

From The New Yorker

Last year, Laurent Joffrin, director of left-leaning news magazine Nouvel Observateur, turned on a follower, asking who authorised him to use "tu" - "Qui vous autorise a me tutoyer?"

From BBC

It's agreed; we will tutoyer each other.

From Project Gutenberg

We have generally used the colloquial second person plural, in place of the thee and thou of the original, since to reproduce the original would not convey the needed intimacy of the French 'tutoyer': but in few cases it seemed better to adhere to the singular.

From Project Gutenberg

I can’t tutoyer for the life of me.”

From Project Gutenberg