<p>Mixing 您 and 你 is a bad practice. I am not aware of any fashionable usage of the mix, not even in net-speak. Your example is just loosely reviewed.</p>
<p>One rare case where you may see both words in one dialog is when the speaker uses 您 for the listener while uses 你 as a reference to a general 2nd person (similar to &quot;one&quot; in English). In this case 您 and 你 refer to different persons and the mix is not about style. E.g.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“他9点才来。这么重要的事，<b>你</b>怎么能迟到两个钟头呢？<b>您</b>觉得呢？”</p>
<p>&quot;He didn't show up until 9. How could <b>one</b> be late for 2 hours for such an important event?! What do <b>you</b> say?&quot;</p>
</blockquote>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-04-11T18:07:10.607Z
2013-04-11T18:07:10.607Z
2020-06-17T09:50:11.587Z
NS.X.
<p>I don't think mixing 你 and 您 is a stylistic device . It is a little inconsistent, but it is NOT grammatically wrong. Actually I believe the sentences in your example are correct, just not perfect. I also believe it is also correct to use 你 and 您 even in one sentence. </p>

<p>For example: 你要和您的朋友一起来.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-04-11T18:07:54.560Z
2013-04-12T02:53:15.073Z
2013-04-12T02:53:15.073Z
孤影萍踪
<p>This is a difficult question, before answering, let's have an understanding on what is a stylistic device. From <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stylistic_device" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Wikipedia</a>: </p>

<blockquote>
  <p>In literature and writing, Stylistic Elements are the use of any of a
  variety of techniques to give an auxiliary meaning, idea, or feeling
  to the literal or written.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>As you probably already know, 您 is the polite way of addressing a second person, 你. Using Google search, I found quite a number of examples where both 你 and 您 are contained within a sentence:</p>

<ol>
<li>您的孩子是否尊重你？ (Does your child respect you?)</li>
<li>您曾否上傳你創建的圖片，而不是用相機拍回來的？ (Did you ever upload pictures that are not taken from your camera?)</li>
<li>教您十招养车的秘籍让你的爱车光亮如新 (Teach you 10 ways to get your car a brand new look)</li>
<li>小心您的隐私：偷看你的QQ聊天记录 仅需300元 (Beware of your privacy: peep at your QQ chat record for just 300 dollars)</li>
</ol>

<p>From these examples, it can be said that politeness is expressed at the earliest and once, only <em>where</em> necessary. I would reason that Chinese wants to be polite, but not <a href="https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/395/how-polite-is-too-polite">overly polite</a> that it may appear annoying, fake or impersonal such as this ad from Google:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p><b>您</b>正在苦苦寻找顾客，而顾客也正在 Google 上寻找<b>您</b>。<b>您</b>可以在 Google
  和我们的广告网络中展示广告。仅当有人点击<b>您</b>的广告时，<b>您</b>才需要支付费用。</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Also, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stylistic_device#Tone" rel="nofollow noreferrer">change in tone</a> from 您 to 你 helps to bring back attention or focus to the subject (you, the reader). Therefore, contrary to other answers, I would argue that the mixing of 你 and 您 is indeed a stylistic device when used appropriately.</p>

<p>But for the specific example you have given, it seems to be just a case of imperfect writing, possibly due to the usage of a translation service. Instead of having so many "yous", I would have rewritten it like this:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>只需一张空白的光盘或U盘，即可下载并安装 Ubuntu 桌面操作系统 。无论当前的操作系统是Windows 还是 Mac OS，您都可以用
  Ubuntu 取代，或让 Ubuntu 与它共存。</p>
</blockquote>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-04-12T05:58:05.643Z
2013-04-12T05:58:05.643Z
2017-04-13T12:48:06.457Z
杨以轩
<p>I found this text on the ubuntu.com website. There are what seems to be 2 different levels of politeness mixed together. Or is this a stylistic device?</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>下载并安装Ubuntu桌面操作系统，<strong>你</strong> 只需要一张空白的光盘或U盘。无论 <strong>您</strong> 当前的操作系统是Windows 或 Mac OS，<strong>您</strong> 都可以用 Ubuntu 取代它们，亦可以选择让 Ubuntu 与它们并存。</p>
</blockquote>

<usage><style>
Mixing of 你 and 您 a stylistic device?
# Mixing of 你 and 您 a stylistic device?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2013-04-11)

I found this text on the ubuntu.com website. There are what seems to be 2 different levels of politeness mixed together. Or is this a stylistic device?

> 下载并安装Ubuntu桌面操作系统，**你** 只需要一张空白的光盘或U盘。无论 **您** 当前的操作系统是Windows 或 Mac OS，**您** 都可以用 Ubuntu 取代它们，亦可以选择让 Ubuntu 与它们并存。

**Tags:** usage, style


---

## 3 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2013-04-12. Score: 4 | Accepted answer

This is a difficult question, before answering, let's have an understanding on what is a stylistic device. From [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stylistic_device):

> In literature and writing, Stylistic Elements are the use of any of a
> variety of techniques to give an auxiliary meaning, idea, or feeling
> to the literal or written.

As you probably already know, 您 is the polite way of addressing a second person, 你. Using Google search, I found quite a number of examples where both 你 and 您 are contained within a sentence:

1. 您的孩子是否尊重你？ (Does your child respect you?)
2. 您曾否上傳你創建的圖片，而不是用相機拍回來的？ (Did you ever upload pictures that are not taken from your camera?)
3. 教您十招养车的秘籍让你的爱车光亮如新 (Teach you 10 ways to get your car a brand new look)
4. 小心您的隐私：偷看你的QQ聊天记录 仅需300元 (Beware of your privacy: peep at your QQ chat record for just 300 dollars)

From these examples, it can be said that politeness is expressed at the earliest and once, only *where* necessary. I would reason that Chinese wants to be polite, but not [overly polite](https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/395/how-polite-is-too-polite) that it may appear annoying, fake or impersonal such as this ad from Google:

> **您**正在苦苦寻找顾客，而顾客也正在 Google 上寻找**您**。**您**可以在 Google
> 和我们的广告网络中展示广告。仅当有人点击**您**的广告时，**您**才需要支付费用。

Also, the [change in tone](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stylistic_device#Tone) from 您 to 你 helps to bring back attention or focus to the subject (you, the reader). Therefore, contrary to other answers, I would argue that the mixing of 你 and 您 is indeed a stylistic device when used appropriately.

But for the specific example you have given, it seems to be just a case of imperfect writing, possibly due to the usage of a translation service. Instead of having so many "yous", I would have rewritten it like this:

> 只需一张空白的光盘或U盘，即可下载并安装 Ubuntu 桌面操作系统 。无论当前的操作系统是Windows 还是 Mac OS，您都可以用
> Ubuntu 取代，或让 Ubuntu 与它共存。


---

### Answer by username_1 on 2013-04-11. Score: 4

Mixing 您 and 你 is a bad practice. I am not aware of any fashionable usage of the mix, not even in net-speak. Your example is just loosely reviewed.

One rare case where you may see both words in one dialog is when the speaker uses 您 for the listener while uses 你 as a reference to a general 2nd person (similar to "one" in English). In this case 您 and 你 refer to different persons and the mix is not about style. E.g.

> “他9点才来。这么重要的事，**你**怎么能迟到两个钟头呢？**您**觉得呢？”
>
> "He didn't show up until 9. How could **one** be late for 2 hours for such an important event?! What do **you** say?"


---

### Answer by username_2 on 2013-04-11. Score: 0

I don't think mixing 你 and 您 is a stylistic device . It is a little inconsistent, but it is NOT grammatically wrong. Actually I believe the sentences in your example are correct, just not perfect. I also believe it is also correct to use 你 and 您 even in one sentence.

For example: 你要和您的朋友一起来.


---

