Capitalization Rules,

[alan-smith84.livejournal.com]

I have been looking over a formal letter that I received and I noticed that sometimes “В” is capitalized in the word вы. What are the rules for capitalizing this letter?

Comments

[avla.livejournal.com]

"вы" is "you" plural,
"Вы" means "you" personal.

[alan-smith84.livejournal.com]

Is there more to it than this? The letter was written to me and does not mention anyone else. Yet there are instances of both examples in the same sentence.

[mr-uef.livejournal.com]

both instances in the same sentence is a violation of style, strictly speaking.
when writing a formal letter, they should have been more consistent.

[brissen.livejournal.com]

Capital "B" is more formal way to adress a person, mostly in business letters.

[zauberer.livejournal.com]

In short, you should capitalize "Вы" when writing politely to a single person, whom you cannot address with "ты". "Вы" is also capitalized in questionnaires, like "Сколько Вам лет", for example.

[tlkh.livejournal.com]

Politeness is not necessary, e.g. "Иван Петрович, Вы - свинья".

[zauberer.livejournal.com]

It depends on what we call "politeness". This example with "свинья" is not pleasant to hear, but it is polite, nevertheless (compare with "Петрович, ты -- свинья").

[tlkh.livejournal.com]

Yes, there is a rule about questionnaires, but I personally dislike it.
For example, in web sites, "вы" must not be capitalized. Only on pages that can be treated as questionnaires.
Quite stupid.

[mr-uef.livejournal.com]

capitalized only in very formal letters when addressed to one person, as a way to convey extreme politeness, as to a high-ranked person.
in less formal letters, and when addressing multiple recipients, always use plain form.

[alan-smith84.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much.

Perhaps the writer simply forgot. I think I was trying to hard to find an explanation for inconsistent capitalizations.