• The Quuuuuill@slrpnk.net
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    3 months ago

    My native spanish speaking friends have always told me if you have to ask, use tu. And more importantly, unless you’re speaking with the king of spain, don’t use usted because it makes you look like a jackass lol. I already know it’s different region to region, but that just means that the safe bet is basically always “tu” if you don’t know

    • teft@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      For me as a spanish as a second language speaker I use tu for my close friends and people younger than me or to a cashier. I use usted for people I don’t know that well or if they are older than me or security guards/cops.

      • gramie@lemmy.ca
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        3 months ago

        As I understand it, in Latin America, usted is very rarely used regardless of the relationships between people.

        • teft@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          I live in colombia and hear it used every day. I ride bikes with my buddies and in the group I ride 3 of us use tu with each other and 3 different of us use usted. Simply because of how much we hang out.

          You can’t really consider latin america as a single block of spanish speakers. Every region is different.

          • Canadian_Cabinet @lemmy.ca
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            3 months ago

            Yep, every country is different. In Spain its more normal to use tú for everyone unless there’s some explicit formality

          • gramie@lemmy.ca
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            3 months ago

            Thanks for the information! I thought it was more uniform in the americas, and usted was mostly used in Europe. I guess I will just have to listen to the people around me and try to do what they do.