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How do I refer to my teacher in a speaking exam?

I've been told that to get the highest grades I have to take the lead in the MFL speaking exams occasionally.

However, if I were to ask my teacher a question or whatever, how do I refer to her?

In Spanish, do I use tú or usted?

In French, do I use tu or vous?

It's a teacher so you'd think I'd be formal but at the same time it's meant to be a natural conversation? Agh


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Ask your teacher, they know the marking schemes best.
You never refer to your teacher in the same way that you'd refer to people you're familiar with, but you are to be polite. In a natural conversation, they're still older than you so you'll still need to refer to them in a formal way, even if the topic of the conversation is informal.

You always refer to them as 'vous' in French.
Original post by BEARichards
I've been told that to get the highest grades I have to take the lead in the MFL speaking exams occasionally.

However, if I were to ask my teacher a question or whatever, how do I refer to her?

In Spanish, do I use tú or usted?

In French, do I use tu or vous?

It's a teacher so you'd think I'd be formal but at the same time it's meant to be a natural conversation? Agh


Posted from TSR Mobile


"Vous" in French and "usted" in Spanish. As thecatwithnohat said, it is a formal occasion and your teacher is not your friend and is also older than you.

As a general rule, the Spanish will use "tú" more quickly than the French but in any case, as a young person you should always start a conversation with an older person with the more formal form of address and wait for them to invite you to move to the more informal one. This applies to your friends' parents, for example, as well as anyone older you might meet formally (at a meeting or interview) or informally.
Your teacher should clarify. In my German exams we were told that it doesn't matter what we use as long as we were consistent. So we were told we were allowed to use "du" (you - informal) as opposed to "Sie" (you - formal).
Vous in french, you're teacher is older than you so you use formal.
Definitely "Usted" in Spanish and "Vous" in French.

Should be self-explanatory.
Original post by BEARichards
I've been told that to get the highest grades I have to take the lead in the MFL speaking exams occasionally.

However, if I were to ask my teacher a question or whatever, how do I refer to her?

In Spanish, do I use tú or usted?

In French, do I use tu or vous?

It's a teacher so you'd think I'd be formal but at the same time it's meant to be a natural conversation? Agh


Whenever it's been brought up with external examiners, in my experience, they've always said that tu/tú is fine. Normally that's the natural conjugation that comes to mind, so it's probably best to stick with that. You'll know whether that's likely to offend your teacher though.

Also, try to avoid asking your teacher what they think about something (this is more of an A-level thing though), it's not really advisable.

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