Russian Lessons: Time Schedule

ты will be impolite (sometimes even rude). At the same 
time, if close friends suddenly called each other 
Вы, it would sound rather ironical 
and/or would demonstrate their alienation. 
When two adult people have just met each other (and for a time being after that) they 
will most certainly use formal 
Вы. They may continue to call each other In this way for 
the rest of their lives. However, in many cases they gradually begin to feel that they 
have become friends. Once they feel this, they will usually start to call each other 
ты – 
they are now on informal terms.
If you are talking about your relationship with somebody else and have a desire to 
emphasize that you are friends, you can say: 
мы с ним на ты. [' m.y 'snim na 't.y] - 
We call each other "
ты".
If you are talking about a very famous and influential person, you will certainly 
pronounce the above phrase with great pride, and in most cases your interlocutor will be 
noticeably impressed. 

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19 
Now you understand that the question suggested at the beginning of this chapter will be 
appropriate only if it is applied to a child (for our purposes a teenager can also be 
included in this category). You will obviously not ask a friend of yours such a silly 
question (presumably you have already known his/her name for a long time). 
But if you want to know a name of an adult person, you should ask: 
Как Baс зовут?
where Bac is the accusative case from the personal pronoun 
Вы. The same pronoun 
вы, however with a small letter, is used when you address more than one person (in 
this case it does not matter whether you are talking to relatives, friends or people who 
you see for the first time in your life). 
When you are asked