From the top of my head, Danish " De " (practically never used), German " Sie ", Chinese " 您 ", French " vous ", Spanish " usted " are a formal way of addressing someone, especially if one isn't familiar with the addressee. Did English ever have this? It sounds as though Proto-Indo-European might have had this (based on my 4 examples), but perhaps someone can enlighten me? Answer Yes it did, and the formal version was (drumroll, please....) you . In Early Modern English, thou was the singular and you was the plural. Plural you came to be used as a polite form of address (similar to the French vous , which is also used for the plural), but over time this polite form became more and more common, eventually displacing the singular thou altogether. This explains a peculiarity of traditional Quaker speech, which one often hears in films set in the early Americas. The Quakers opposed making any distinctions of rank, so they insisted ...