speaking to strangers, elders or superiors, while (or in some parts of the North) is used with friends, close family, animals and children. is also the form used when addressing God. Nonetheless, the use of and varies between families and regions, but those guidelines are generally observed. is an alternative to found in very formal literary language. Alongside the usages explained above, those born before 1945 would, in their youth, use with a girl of about the same age. Similarly to Italian, the third person singular is used by some speakers in the former Dyfed region of west Wales; it appears, however, that the pronoun used—between either or (masculine, South), or (masculine, North) and (feminine)—depends on the gender of the listener. A similar distinction exists between Cornish singular / and plural / . The singular form is used when talking to friends, family, animals and children, and the plural form is used to talk to a group of people, or when being especially polite to one person. In Breton the second person plural is used as a polite form when addressing a single person and the singular is reserved for informal situations. However, in a large area of central Brittany the singular form has been entirely replaced by , as in English. Balto-Slavic Belarusian, Russian, and Ukrainian (mainly Eastern) East Slavic Languages distinguish between the familiar () and the respectful (), the latter also being the plural of both forms. (Respectful () may be capitalised in formal written correspondence, while plural is not.) The distinction appeared relatively recently and began to gain currency among the educated classes in the 18th century through French influence. Generally, is used among friends and relatives, but the usage depends not only on the closeness of the relationship but also on age and the formality of the situation (e.g., work meeting vs. a party). Children always use to address each other and are addressed in this way by adults but are taught to address adults with . Younger adults typically also address older adults outside the family as regardless of intimacy, and may be addressed as in return. When talking to each other young people often start with the formal but may transition to very quickly in an informal situation. Among older people, is often reserved for closer acquaintances. Unless there is a substantial difference in age, the choice of the form is symmetric: if