I’ve been playing around in Transifex with om-welcome’s Spanish translation. I hope to do more over the weekend, but wanted to ask a question in regards to style/tone. In Spanish there’s multiple ways to speak in the second person, and the most common/neutral ones are “Usted”, which is more formal or professional and used with people you’re not close with, and “Tú”, which is rather informal/casual and denotes a closer relationship with the other.
I think both could work fine, depending on the image you want to show, if it should be more formal and professional or more casual and friendly. I noticed some of the translated strings use “tú”, but I wanted to ask here just to be sure.
I am learning Spanish in Ecuador and I am not an expert.
What I think I know: My comparison is to US English. In Ecuador usted/ustedes is used a lot. The language is characteristically more formal and respectful to people. Tú is used more for people one knows like family, acquaintances, and friends.
I was taught “when in doubt, use usted/ustedes”.
In the context you are asking about I think usted would be preferred but I do not think anyone would be offended by tú.
This link might help clarify. I can verify that what they say about use in healthcare settings is exactly what I experience in Ecuador.
(Here in Colombia the social norms are quite similar norms, though we have different uses depending on gender: with women “tú” is the norm, and “usted” implies a certain closeness with that person (though in formal contexts “usted” is still the norm, at least until the woman refers to you as “tu”), and between men “tu” is rarely used, oftentimes sounding rather sus. Fun stuff. If you want to chat in Spanish with someone from another place just let me know )
