dumneavoastră

Romanian

Etymology

From domnia, from domn, from Latin dominus (“master”) + voastră, from Latin voster, vostra (“your”), thus initially meaning "your lordship". Compare similar constructions in Spanish usted (“you”) from vuestra merced (cf. also vuecencia), Portuguese você (“you”), Catalan vostè, etc.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [dum.ne̯aˈvo̯as.trə]

• Audio:

  (file)

Pronoun

dumneavoastră

1. you (singular and plural, polite)

Usage notes

Dumneavoastră (abbreviated as dv., dvs., or d-voastră) is used in polite or formal speech in place of the plain pronouns tu and voi. Dumneavoastră always takes verbs in the second person plural forms, that is, the same forms as voi. For example, dumneavoastră sunteți and voi sunteți both mean "you are," but the former is polite and can take singular and plural meanings, whereas the second is informal and only used in the plural. Dumneavoastră has the same form in the genitive and dative cases as in the nominative and accusative.

Dumneavoastră is also the plural of dumneata, a semi-polite pronoun.

See also

Romanian personal pronouns

		singular	plural
1st person		eu	noi
2nd person	plain	tu	voi
	semi-polite	dumneata	dumneavoastră
	polite	dumneavoastră
3rd person familiar	m	el	ei
	f	ea	ele
3rd person polite	m	dumnealui	dumnealor
	f	dumneaei

• dv. (abbreviated form)
• dvs. (abbreviated form)
• d-voastră (abbreviated form)