Quote:
Originally Posted by Yingzi
Hola, he estudiado español casí dos años perdone mi español poble...pero me encanta much!!o 
tengo una pregunta...
Mi profesor me enseñó que hay differencia entre tú y usted, y usted significa "you" de manera cortesa. Pero no entiendo cómo se usan, por que japonés también tiene cortesa "you" y se usamos cuando hablamos con personas más viejas (incluso si la persona tiene un año más vieja que yo usamos cortesa "you") cuando encontramos primera vez y tenemos que continuar usarlo hasta él o ella dice o da a entender que quiere usar "friendly you" ¿cómo se usan "tú" y "usted"? |
Buenas,
No escribo mucho en el forum pero decidí constestarle su pregunta. Ud. (usted) se usa cuando no conoces a la persona con quién estas hablando, cuando estas hablando con una persona mayor de edad, oh cuando estas no estas seguro.
Basically always use 'Ud.' unless you're with family or close friends. It's not really insulting to use 'Tu', but it's not as eloquent or professional. My teacher would always say to students, when they would use 'Tu' to refer to her, "No me tutées!" Basically don't 'Tu'ify me. I don't think its identical to Japanese. Ud. should always be used even if talking to young people, and there isn't really a signifying time to use 'tu'. The other person will not go "Ok we've known each other for awhile you can use Tu". It's really just a difference in eloquence not so much hierarchy. It's sort of like the difference between going to a stranger and saying "Hey mister (Ud.)", or "Hey buddy (Tu)". You can say either and no there is no offense, but one just sounds more polite and eloquent.
Once more 'Tu' and 'Ud' are used at your discretion, but you should try to use Ud., unless your with close friends or family (even if they're old). I even use it among my friends just because it's so ingrained into me by my mom and teachers. It doesn't mean I'm not close to my friends or anything, it just means I like to speak more proper.
Hope I helped, let me know if you have any other questions, I'm a native speaker (Cuban/Venezuelan, and lived in Costa Rica till I was 8), but I hate typing in Spanish (doing accents is a bitch on a Mac).