When should you use tu and vous in France in 2026?

Use vous with strangers, older people you have just met, shop and café staff, drivers, teachers, managers, médecins, agents at the mairie or préfecture, and landlords during a first rental file: How to rent a home and Bureaucracy without French. Early workplace relationships usually stay on vous even between people of similar age until someone proposes tutoiement.

Vous is also the plural form. Speaking to two friends or a whole team means vous for the group, regardless of how informal each person is one-to-one. Mail and SMS to an administration stay on vous and Monsieur or Madame even when a colleague already uses tu with you at lunch.

Use tu with family, close friends, young children, classmates in many student settings, and teammates only after the culture of that office is clear. Sports clubs and coworking chats may move to tu quickly; banks, clinics, and housing agents usually do not: French at clinic and French for work.

The polite switch is verbal. Wait for “On peut se tutoyer?” or “Tu peux me tutoyer.” The older or higher-status person often leads. If you are unsure, stay on vous; recovering from an early tu is harder than accepting a later invitation. Practice both conjugations so the social choice does not freeze your speaking: Learn French in France and How hard is French.