In European Portuguese, tu is the normal informal you, used with friends, family and children. It takes its own verb endings, as in tu falas. Você is not the neutral everyday word it is in Brazil, and in Portugal it can sound formal or cold. For real respect, Portugal uses o senhor or a senhora.
Portuguese has more than one word for you, and the choice between them is where Portugal and Brazil part company in daily speech. A learner who picks up você as the default, the Brazilian habit, will sound slightly off in Lisbon without knowing why.
The short version is that Portugal keeps tu alive and busy. Tu is the pronoun you hear between friends, within a family, and with children. It carries its own set of verb endings that courses built on Portuguese from Portugal teach but Brazilian ones rarely drill.
Você is where the trouble starts. In Brazil it is the plain, friendly you. In Portugal the same word carries distance. It suits a new colleague more than a friend, and using it where tu was expected can feel cold.
Key takeaways
- In the Portuguese spoken in Portugal, tu is the everyday informal you, used with friends, family and children, and it takes second-person verb endings like tu falas.
- Você is a distancing form in the Portuguese spoken in Portugal, closer to a polite you for colleagues or strangers, not the neutral everyday word it is in Brazil.
- For clear respect, Portugal uses o senhor or a senhora, or the person's name, followed by third-person verbs.
- Tu takes second-person verb endings such as tu tens and tu queres, while você and o senhor take third-person endings such as você tem and você quer.
What is the difference between tu and você?
Tu and você are both you in the singular, but they sit at different social distances in Portugal. Tu is close and informal. Você is more reserved, and speakers reach for it when there is some social distance but not enough to use a full title.
The gap matters because the two pronouns drive different verb forms. Tu uses second-person endings that Brazilian courses skip, so a learner trained on você has never practised tu falas, tu tens or tu queres.
When do you use tu in Portugal?
Use tu with anyone you would treat as a peer or someone younger: friends, classmates, siblings, children, and often colleagues your own age once the ice is broken. Portuguese families use tu throughout, including with parents and grandparents.
Because tu is so common in Portugal, learning its verb endings early pays off fast. Saying tu tens or tu queres to a friend sounds natural, while você tem to the same friend sounds like you are holding them at arm's length.
Why does você sound formal in Portugal?
Você grew out of an old respectful phrase, vossa mercê, meaning your grace, and in Portugal it kept some of that distance. Brazil wore the formality away until você became the ordinary you. Portugal did not.
The practical result is that você has no single safe translation. With a stranger it can read as polite; with a friend it can read as cold. Many speakers in Portugal sidestep the problem by dropping the pronoun and letting the verb carry the meaning, as in quer um café? for would you like a coffee?
How do the verb endings change?
Tu takes second-person singular endings, while você, o senhor and a senhora all take third-person singular endings, the same ones you use for ele and ela. This table shows the split for the verbs you use most.
| English | With tu | With você |
|---|---|---|
| You are (ser) | tu és | você é |
| You are (estar) | tu estás | você está |
| You have | tu tens | você tem |
| You want | tu queres | você quer |
| You speak | tu falas | você fala |
How do you show respect in Portugal?
When você feels too casual or too cold, Portugal uses o senhor for a man and a senhora for a woman, both followed by third-person verbs. O senhor quer açúcar? means would you, sir, like sugar?
A warmer option is to address people by their name or title in the third person. A Portuguese speaker might ask a Maria quer açúcar? to mean do you, Maria, want sugar?, which sounds respectful without the chill of você.
Is tu vs você different in European Portuguese?
Yes, and this is one of the clearest differences between the two varieties. Brazil leans on você for the informal you and has mostly let tu fade, so Brazilian courses teach você with third-person verbs. The Portuguese spoken in Portugal keeps tu for informal address and saves você for distance.
| Portugal | Brazil | English |
|---|---|---|
| tu falas | você fala | You speak |
| tu tens | você tem | You have |
| tu queres | você quer | You want |
| tu és | você é | You are |
The pronoun is only one of many differences between the two varieties. For the wider picture, from vocabulary to pronunciation, see how different is European Portuguese from Brazilian Portuguese?
How do you make tu feel automatic?
Reading the rule is quick. Making tu come out of your mouth, with the right verb ending, under the pressure of a live conversation, takes practice that grammar tables cannot give you. You have to use tu, be corrected, and use it again.
This is where Fluentus fits. Fluentus teaches European Portuguese only, and its AI tutor holds spoken conversations with you 24 hours a day in a real human voice. The tutor speaks to you with tu and corrects your verb endings as you go, so the informal forms Brazilian courses skip become a habit. It runs courses from A1 to B2 with smart flashcards built from your own conversations, on iOS and Android.
Once you have chosen tu or você, the next question is where the small pronouns like me and te go in the sentence. That is covered in where do object pronouns go in European Portuguese?
In one sentence: use tu for friends and family in Portugal, keep você for distance, and reach for o senhor or a senhora when you need real respect.
Frequently asked questions
Should I learn tu or você for Portugal?
Learn tu first. In Portugal tu is the everyday informal you, used with friends, family, children and peers, and it has its own verb endings that Brazilian courses skip. Você exists in Portugal too, but it sounds formal or distant, so it is the wrong default for daily conversation there.
Is it rude to use você in Portugal?
Você is not rude by itself, but it can land wrong. With a stranger or a new colleague it reads as polite and safe. With a close friend it can feel cold, as though you are keeping your distance. When in doubt with someone senior, o senhor or a senhora is warmer and clearer than você.
Do tu and você use different verbs?
Yes. Tu takes second-person singular endings, so you say tu falas, tu tens and tu queres. Você takes third-person singular endings, the same as ele and ela, so you say você fala, você tem and você quer. The pronoun you choose therefore changes every verb in the sentence, which is why the choice is worth drilling early.
Does Portugal use vós?
Vós, the old plural you, is archaic in the Portuguese spoken in Portugal and survives in the north, in older speech and church language. For you all in modern Portugal, use vocês with third-person plural verbs, as in vocês falam. Vocês covers both friends and strangers, so the tu and você split does not apply in the plural.