TCF Speaking Task 2: Tu or Vous? Match the Register to the Role
This is for TCF Canada Task 2 candidates who can build questions but hesitate between tu and vous. FEI’s public oral criteria include sociolinguistic appropriateness to the communication situation, so the relationship in the role-play matters. The decision method, French examples and drills here are original HootBill teaching material, not an official FEI tu/vous table or a score guarantee.
HootBill · Edited
Official format reference
Read the relationship before the information goal
At the start of preparation, identify both roles: friend, colleague or neighbour, versus an unfamiliar receptionist, school employee, agent or other service professional. Register comes from the simulated relationship, not from how difficult the prompt looks.
FEI’s public criteria include appropriateness to the communication situation. In practice, that makes consistency between pronouns, politeness and question forms worth training. It does not mean FEI publishes a rule saying every named role automatically requires one pronoun.
Platform practice method
Use a simple two-level decision and move on
If the prompt clearly gives you a friend or familiar person, practise a natural tu register. If you are speaking to an unfamiliar professional or service contact, a consistent vous register is a sound practice choice. Once chosen, keep the opening, pronouns and verb forms aligned.
If the relationship is ambiguous, do not spend most of the two-minute preparation debating etiquette. Choose a reasonable polite register and return to the real task: obtain information, listen and follow up.
- Friend/familiar role: natural tu throughout.
- Unknown professional/service role: polite vous throughout.
- Avoid switching from « tu peux » to « pourriez-vous » without a real change in relationship.
Original practice example
Original comparison: same information goal, different register
These are original HootBill practice questions, not official sample answers. The information goal is the same; the relationship changes.
- Tu sais à quelle heure le cours commence ?
- With a friend or familiar person, tu fits a natural conversational question.
- Pourriez-vous me dire à quelle heure le cours commence ?
- With an unfamiliar staff member, vous plus a polite request keeps the register formal.
- Et toi, tu y vas depuis longtemps ?
- A familiar follow-up stays in the tu system instead of switching suddenly.
- Et depuis combien de temps proposez-vous cette activité ?
- A formal information request keeps vous and the matching verb form.
Platform practice method
Practice the same information map twice
Write five information goals only: time, price, location, conditions and registration. First role-play the other person as a friend using tu. Then change the same situation to a course employee and rebuild the questions with vous. Do not write a complete script.
Check four things: did the opening fit the relationship, did you mix pronouns, did politeness make the question unnecessarily complicated, and did you still listen to the answer? Public candidate discussions sometimes raise register as a Task 2 self-check; those discussions show interest, not an official scoring rule.
Before you start
Is vous always the safest choice in Task 2?
There is no public FEI rule saying every Task 2 must use vous. If the prompt explicitly gives you a friend, tu can fit the role better. The useful goal is a reasonable, consistent choice.
What if I accidentally mix tu and vous once?
Do not abandon the interaction. Make a brief repair if it is easy, then continue obtaining information. Train overall consistency rather than perfection panic.