Did Modern hebrew have a "formal you"?

Question

I think that in the past, somewhere until the 70s I'd guess, Israelis used to use "כבודו" in a similar way to the spanish "Usted". Thus, you could tell someone "מה ירצה לאכול כבודו?" ("What does his honour want to eat?"/"Que quiere comer usted?"). There's at least one favorite quote that uses this form: "כבודו שכח לברך?" from the Israeli movie "Charlie And A half". You can also hear (at least on TV) some judges being referred to this way, with third person and "כבוד השופט" instead of second person and "אתה". Would you agree that this is comparable to formal second person (Sie in german, usted in spanish, etc.), or not?

Answer 1

Hi Rayne,

The term Kvodo in Hebrew does mean "his honor" as you mentioned, however Hebrew does not have two forms of "you" like Spanish or French have (you plural) or the sie in German. Hebrew is a much more casual language thus the only way to say you would be Atta or Att. This has been the same in the 70s as well as now.

The only times Kvodo is used would be while addressing a judge in court. In English you would say "your honor". In Hebrew you'd say "his honor" (Kvodo) for a male judge and "her honor" (Kvoda) for a female judge.

Sometimes as a joke, a person can address another person by using kvodo instead of using the regular atta to show an exaggerated respect but that would make the addressee laugh :)

Answer 2

Baruch Ata, ‘Blessed are You’ or ‘You are blessed,’ is a famous formula that introduces many Hebrew blessings. We address God as Ata, You, the exact same word we would use for you, a friend. Through prayer, we can converse directly with God and build a close personal relationship. Hebrew language does not even have upper case (capital) letters, so it falls to the translator to recognize the context and spell it as You (chatting with God) or you (addressing a person).

Answer 3

Kvodo is used in a similar way as some honorific addresses in English like “your honor” or “your Grace.” It wouldn’t be the same as a formal pronoun, like Usted in Spanish. Generally, Hebrew does not have a formal pronoun. However, in some Yiddish-speaking communities in Israel, the plural אתם is used as a formal singular in the same way that איר (plural and formal “you” in Yiddish) is used in Yiddish. This isn’t standard hebrew, though.