Use вы (vy) with strangers, older people, service staff, officials, teachers and colleagues you don't know well, and with any group of two or more people. Use ты (ty) with friends, family, children and peers who use it with you. When in doubt, start with вы and let the other person suggest ты.
English lost its informal "thou" centuries ago, so English speakers have no instinct for this choice and tend to pick whichever form they learned first. In Russian the choice is made in the first sentence and heard in every verb that follows. Вы does two jobs at once: it is the plural "you" for any group, and the polite "you" for one person. Ты is only ever one person you are close to, or a child.
| Situation | Form |
|---|---|
| Waiter, shop assistant, taxi driver, hotel receptionist | вы |
| A stranger you stop to ask for directions | вы |
| Your friend's parents, your partner's relatives at first | вы |
| A teacher or professor | вы, with first name and patronymic |
| A new colleague | вы until they offer ты; in many young offices this happens quickly |
| Friends, siblings, your own parents | ты |
| Children and pets | ты |
| Two of your friends at once | вы (plural) |
Choosing вы is not just swapping a pronoun. Verbs, commands, possessives and greetings all change, and mixing them inside one sentence is a giveaway of a learner.
| English | With ты | With вы |
|---|---|---|
| Hello | Привет (privet) | Здравствуйте (zdravstvuyte) |
| Goodbye | Пока (poka) | До свидания (do svidaniya) |
| Do you know? | Ты знаешь? | Вы знаете? |
| Excuse me | Извини (izvini) | Извините (izvinite) |
| Tell me | Скажи | Скажите |
| Wait | Подожди | Подождите |
| your | твой, твоя, твоё | ваш, ваша, ваше |
| for you | для тебя | для вас |
The past tense is where English speakers slip. With вы the verb is always plural, even when you are talking to one woman or one man: Вы были в Москве? (Have you been to Moscow?), never Вы был or Вы была. Short adjectives are plural too: Вы правы (You're right), Вы готовы? (Are you ready?).
Full adjectives are the exception. They agree with the actual person, in the singular: Вы очень добрый to a man, Вы очень добрая to a woman (You're very kind). So the same polite sentence can contain a plural verb and a singular adjective: Вы были такая внимательная (You were so attentive), said to a woman.
In letters and emails to one person, many people capitalize Вы as a mark of respect. In a message to a group, вы stays lowercase.
Formal вы usually comes with a first name plus patronymic, a middle name formed from the father's first name. If a teacher's father is called Сергей, she is Анна Сергеевна (Anna Sergeyevna); if a man's father is Пётр, he is Иван Петрович (Ivan Petrovich). This is how students address teachers, and how many people address an older colleague or a boss. "Mr. Ivanov" translated word for word, господин Иванов, sounds stiff and official in everyday speech.
Ты, on the other hand, usually comes with a short form of the name. Александр becomes Саша (Sasha), Мария becomes Маша (Masha), Дмитрий becomes Дима (Dima). Hearing someone switch from Александр Петрович to Саша tells you the relationship has changed.
The switch is usually offered, not assumed, and the older or more senior person normally offers it. The phrases you will hear:
The natural answer is Давай! (Sure!) Going back from ты to вы with someone is a strong signal: it usually means coldness, offense or a deliberate return to a formal footing.
To get a stranger's attention, Извините! is always safe. You will also hear people call service staff and strangers девушка (young woman) or молодой человек (young man), largely regardless of actual age. It is normal in Russia, but as a learner you lose nothing by sticking with Извините.
The quickest way to make the switch automatic is to practice both registers back to back: order politely from a waiter with вы, then turn to a friend at the table with ты. Rehearsing that kind of real exchange out loud, with a tutor or in an actual café, trains the verb endings along with the pronoun.
With an adult stranger, usually yes. It can sound overfamiliar or even aggressive. Young people among themselves in casual settings often move to ты quickly, but the safe default with any adult you don't know is вы.
Today almost everyone uses ты with parents and grandparents. Addressing parents with вы existed in the past and in some traditional families, but it now sounds old-fashioned.
With вы and the teacher's first name and patronymic, for example Анна Сергеевна or Иван Петрович. Use the first name alone only if the teacher asks you to.
Because вы is the plural pronoun, used for one person as a mark of respect. The verb and short adjectives stay plural, while full adjectives agree with the person you are talking to.
