तू, तुम, आप — getting respect right

Three words for 'you', and choosing wrong is worse than a grammar mistake.

The question

Which 'you' do I use with a teacher?

The trick

for anyone older, senior, or unknown. for friends and people your own age. almost never — it is either very intimate or an insult, and rarely anything in between.

Worked example

1— teacher, elder, stranger, customer. Verb takes the plural form.
2— close friend, younger sibling, classmate.
3— a small child, God in prayer, or an insult. When unsure, do not use it.

So: — always

Remember it like this

When in doubt, . Nobody in the history of Hindi has ever been offended by too much respect.

In the exam

Letter-writing questions are graded partly on this. A formal letter uses throughout, and slipping into halfway costs marks even if every other word is correct.

Why it works

Hindi encodes social distance in the pronoun itself, exactly as Malayalam, Tamil and Kannada do with their own respect forms. You already have this instinct — you only need the new words.

Explain this to my childGet the words to teach it, in your language

Try it yourself

0/3 correct

1
Which 'you' for a teacher?
2
Which 'you' for a close friend your age?
3
आप takes which verb form?