I got a letter from a new penfriend in Hong Kong, written in 普通话. I think their first language is Cantonese. Mostly the letter uses simplified characters, with the occasional traditional one. It starts by using 尔, e.g.
尔最近的工作忙吗?
then shifts to using 你. So I was wondering about the differences between the two. It looks like for this meaning 尔 is more formal, and the dictionaries I looked at say it’s a formal word when used for “you”. But I’d like to have some examples; the dictionaries don’t give much detail here.
尔
has the meaning of你
in old Chinese though. – Justin XL Sep 16 '14 at 8:00普通话
,尔
is rarely used instead of你
. It could be found at somechengyu
or fixed phrase occasionally, such as尔虞我诈
. – user4072 Sep 16 '14 at 8:53