Greetings & Formality

je/jij vs. u ≈ நீ vs நீங்கள்

Use u with elders, strangers, officials, and anyone you'd address as நீங்கள். Use je/jij with close friends, family, and children, same as நீ. One extra wrinkle: in careful writing u still pairs with the same verb form as hij/zij ('he/she') — u is, not u bent — though u bent has become the everyday spoken norm. Either way, you're grammatically addressing someone formally as if speaking about a third person, a habit to build consciously.