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I have listened to Édith Piaf's Johny tu n'es pas un ange and she says

Toi, te souviens-tu de moi.

What is -tu?

BTW, I do know what tu is, but not -tu, and have not found it on Google, perhpaps it does not count the dash (-).

Schilive
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1 Answers1

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Se souvenir is a reflexive verb. Two pronouns are used, they represent the same person because in such verbs, the subject acts on themselves.

Je me souviens (literally: I remind myself)
Tu te souviens
Il/elle/on se souvient
Nous nous souvenons
[...]

In the interrogative form, the subject pronoun is inversed but not the object one:

Me souviens-je de... ? (rare)
Te souviens-tu de... ?
Se souvient-il/elle/on de... ?
Nous souvenons-nous de... ?
[...]

Finally, Toi is used in the sentence to emphasize the fact she is talking to Johnny, so toi, te and tu all refer to the same person.

jlliagre
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  • Thank you! I was confused because the subjective was enclitic, which does not make sense in Portuguese. It is actually similar to English: "Have you done this?" compared to "You have done this.", – Schilive Apr 03 '23 at 02:29
  • Right. In casual/oral French, the inversion is rarer and rarer: Toi, tu te souviens de moi ? – jlliagre Apr 03 '23 at 11:29