There is only one way to say “you” in contemporary English. Historically, “you” was formal, “thou” was familiar. In most languages that have retained the familiar/formal divide, the familiar form of address is used when speaking to God, as well as family, friends, children, animals (and bad drivers).
I think it’s rather a shame that English lost “thou” as a form of address. It would be handy if there was a way to signal intimacy or formality with a single word, as is possible in many languages.
One does need to brush up on forms of address.
“whom” is not formal. It’s the objective case of who
Well, then, when you find out, let me know who he is.
There is no formal/informal divide in English (except among a few Quakers who, illogically, use thee for singular–instead of thou).
Thee is the objective case of thou, not the plural.
Formal, informal, singular and plural.
The comma splice.
Yes, it should be clear to anyone reading the OP that the question is not whether “you” maps to, for instance “tu or usted”. And the answer is… depends.
Would you like coffee or tea, can certainly be as formal as one would like.
You go sit over there, would sound rude in most formal settings.
I voted “formal” because the OP wrote “You” which is different than “you”. I do not know how to pronounce “you” with a capital Y, though.
“Thou” is the informal form of the second person. “You” is really referring to the person in the plural.
Now if you will excuse me, I have to go get bled to cure myself of bubonic plague.
There’s no formal (or informal) variant, so obviously it’s both. That’s not a poll option though.
Inadequate responses.
English has very few mechanisms for marking formality, intimacy, or hierarchy. The form of 2nd person address is one area that lacks such a mechanism. So the correct answer, not in the poll, is “Neither.” Or “Both.”
ETA: Like almost everybody else here said.
Lad, thou’ll thou those as thou’s thee. Think on’t!
If I had to choose, I would go with informal. This is simply because there is a type of formal writing in which one attempts to avoid the second person entirely.
I am aware that “you” was originally either plural or the formal singular. I am also aware that “thou” was formerly informal, but, due to its age and use in certain works like the King James Bible, has become thought of as more formal.
Both.
No, there aren’t formal/informal in today’s English. Youse and you all are slang, not informal. Whom is just a word only still around today for certain types to be pedantic about.
I still don’t understand why there’s a poll. “Thou” and its inflections historically constituted the familiar second person singular, while “you”* and its inflections constituted the familiar second person singular. Presumably along the lines of the “royal We”, the plural “You” also came to be used as a formal address for social superiors, as well as a sign of courtesy to socially equal strangers. Gradually, “you” became the preferred version of the word regardless of the number of listeners or their social status. According to one theory cited in Kevin Stroud’s podcast** on the history of the English language, this happened out of people’s preference for erring on the side of formality. **I don’t remember which episode of the podcast this was; there are nearly seventy published so far.
It is what it is, and it was what it was. Why should we be voting on this?
*Obviously not “you”, “yours” exactly, but the various words that evolved into them.
**I don’t remember which episode of the podcast this was; there are nearly seventy published so far.
Spectre of Pithecanthropus, the sector you bode from, how is it called in common parlance?
More or less the USA, though the sector may additionally extend through some of the border regions. Oh I’ll grant you, one can find marmite here if one is willing to seek it out, but it’s definitely not a commonly seen product.