Du or Sie? How to say 'you' to a German | DW English
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- Опубликовано: 21 фев 2017
- There are two ways to say "you" in German and using the wrong one can lead to some serious misunderstandings. Kate Müser finds out how to avoid "du" and "Sie" faux-pas - and learns that Germans make mistakes, too.
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Every other week, DW's Kate Müser explores the quirks of everyday life and language in Germany. Originally from the United States, Müser has lived in Germany for over 13 years. Follow Meet the Germans on RUclips or at dw.com/meetthegermans.
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That awkward situation when you're trying to talk to a person without saying "Sie" or "Du" at all because you don't know which one of them I appropriate😂
So true
In hungarian totally same :D
In Bengali there are three such words for addressing others and for all the doubtful situations we use the third word
Story of my life
@@chiranjitray760 Good idea, but if german had a third word as an alternative, you´d also not use that because we wouldn´t want to insult the person by questioning your relashionship with them :)
On very few occasions we also use the "Sie" with the first name, that is something in between. In 11th grade our teachers started doing that.
Yes, it is called the "Hamburger Sie" and often seen in places where you are in frequent contact with the same person(s) of authority (like in school, university, some businesses), making sticking to the "Herr/ Frau..." awkward, but a "Du" still not appropriate. It is important to remember though, that this is often used asymmetrically, by the authority, seldom by the subordinate.
In elementary school we said 'Frau/Herr' and 'Du'
I think it's worth mentioning that most Germans will be pretty relaxed about this when you talk to them as a non-native speaker. The issue can be touchy, though, particularly in the workplace.
I went through 2 Years of guitar lessons without saying "Du" or "Sie" once because I didn't know which one was appropriate.
That's quite respectable
Never, ever, ever say Du to Polizei...
Keith Duncan really good tip 👍🏼I believe you can actually get fined for that.
You are faster in need for a lawyer than to say I am sorry. This counts for every dealings with public officicials and business situations.
Indeed. Next time you should definitely say "Sie Arschloch!" instead of "du Arschloch!".
It will save you some hundred euros fine.
Even if you are turist and dont know the language well? 🤔
Natalie Muñoz Well no.
Whenever you say „du“ to a police man it is checked wether you wanted to disrespect/insult the police or not. If not than you don‘t have to pay a fine.
And dont be scared^^ we german love if someone learns german, we wont be mad over a "wrong" sie or du =)
Well that’s a relief 😅
Danke
A lot of customers in the shop I work in don't want to be adressed with "Sie" because it makes them feel old, but for me, the "Sie" is some sort of barrier to keep up this customer and worker/employee distance.
I always use Sie, and I found it exciting when an older person offered du.
I'm german and let me tell you sometimes it can really difficult.
E.g. I say "du" my neighbour, but when i worked for his company during my holidays I called him "Sie" whilst my shifts.
Once I participated in a phone call with a German client. As all of us were natives, we spoke German - and by that it was Sie / last name, of course.
At some point some English colleagues of our client contact joined in for a few minutes - and by that everybody switched to using first name for anybody.
When the English participants left the call, we switched back to Sie / last name again.
That was a bit odd, but yeah, anything else would have been even weirder.
At my workplace we're all Germans and we speak German to each other with "Sie" and last name. But we have many co-workers around the world and during video calls we speak English even to our co-workers in the same room with you and first name. As soon as we hang up and switch back to German, it's again "Sie" and Mr. Schmidt . That's so odd to me every day.
When you are at meetings like a biker's meeting you say "Du" to each other without thinking about it.
In Germany most fire fighters are volunteer fire fighters (not professional ones), especially in small towns and villages. Fire fighters always say "Du" to each other, even to higher ranking fire fighter officers like the district fire chief.
And of course on construction sites the handymen say "Du" to each other.
and in many clubs you say " du " as well.
Important thing to mention:
As a student you always call your teacher with „Sie“
Even the Teacher say „Du“!
I think the decision for Du or Sie is connected to 1) respect and 2) ingroup/outgroup. You show respect to a stranger, your teacher, the doctor, a policeman, an older person. If these same people are in your ingroup, however, such as guests at the same (informal) party, volunteers in the fire brigade, colleagues in the same company , parents in the same kindergarten, members of the same gym ... it's Du.
In bengali we say you in 3 different ways:-
1)Tui (friends,brother,sister)
2)Tumi(Lover)
3)Apni(Older person,strangers,respected person)
Kinda easy tho, because you can easily differ.
Yes, our's is on the degree of formality and respectability. Thankfully, Bengali personal pronouns are not gendered as in Hindi or French.
Easy: If you would use Sir or Ma'am (or any varation of it) use Sie. Done.
Is it easy though? The threshold for saying Sir/Madam changes from culture to culture. Here in the UK, nowadays it's rarer and rarer to hear Sir/Madam (I almost never say it, I'm in my thirties and I find it way too formal). In fact things are even more informal here. It's common for the cashier or sales assistant to call you mate/buddy, in some regions they'll even call you love or lover!
@@oioisexymlaoy yeah its hard to generalize since different regions all have cultural differences.
I live in the Midwest US and we say Sir and Ma'am a lot, at least if you're working in the service industry. But we say it in general too normally when you're addressing a stranger. So I assume that's when you would be using Sie.
@@oioisexymlaoy To say "Du" to everyone is often rude, but to say "Sie" to everyone, is maybe awkward. If you are totally unsure, choose "Sie". With this, you hurt no one. If someone dont like that, he/she is not offended, but you will get informed to say "Du" please.
It’s fine to say “Du” in situations where you would greet the other person using “hi there”/“hiya”.
In danish we have the formal (De) and the informal (du) as well, however several decades ago a great shift towards general informality started, so today, (De) is rarely used with anyone at all when spoken, except if you are speaking to the royals or in some very formal contexts or with those few who insist on this usage. There is however another side to this practice, using the formal (De) can outside these contexts be seen as rude as it implies you're distancing yourself (as in they abhore you) from the person you're speaking to.
Thanks for sharing!
I am no historian, this is just my good old sturdy half knowledge, so if I got things wrong or confused here, please go ahead and correct me.
If we start getting royal here, Germany has had regal pronouns too, even if it has no royalty any more. To nobles we would have used "Ihr" und "Euch", as in "Ihr seid mir willkommen, Eure Majestät." (I welcome you, your majesty). Children would have adressed their parents with "Sie", sometimes even used by the married couple to each other. Free men, (eg citizen, traders and craftsmen in approved associations) had the honor of "Sie" too, as opposed to farmers and "Leibeigene", people owned by their landlords with more duties than rights, who would only get the informal Du or, when adressed by a much higher ranked person, even adressed with an Er. "Gehe Er mir aus dem Weg!" = "Move along!"
So its actually a lot easier than before 😉
I think German is starting to develop in this direction as well with gathering speed. In the meantime the issue can be complex and confusing.... other languages, e.g. Spanish seem to be on the same path but farther along than German
English used to have formal & informal forms of address. You and Thou. You was the formal and Thou was the informal. Thou is archaic now, though is still used in some parts of Northern England.
Mega Chimp thanks for watching!
As I learned, it was Ye and Thou.
@@HalfEye79 "Ye" used to be an accusative form of "You", it's still present in Hiberno-English: "You are/Thank ye", but its usage isn't rigid. :)
It also varies depending on where you live. In rural Bavaria for example "du" is way more common
Don't worry, in my experience us Germans are pretty relaxed about the SIe-Du thing. As a general rule always use Sie until Du is offered. There are three criteria for who gets to offer the Du.
1. The person of higher (social) status
2. The older person
3. The woman/girl
In our linguistics course we even wrote a programm to determine who gets to offer the Du.
i always say "Sie" bc then you're safe. when the other person says "you can say du" I try to say du but most of the times I'm more comfortable with Sie
In spanish we also have the formal you "Usted" and the informal "tú". It can also be tricky sometimes and also depends on the country. Here in Chile is similar to Germany except the kids say Usted (formal) to everybody but their family or friends. Ive been told usted by little kids and feel sooo old 😔
In Colombia, they say usted to everybody, even if they are close friends 🤷
pretty well explained. I'm middle age. If I were in Germany and trying to speak the language I'd say sie to anyone around late 20s on up who I didn't know well, and at work (if I worked), I'd use sie as well, but to young people up to around mid 20s I'd use du. Got it.
noviceprepper53 sounds about right!
I was interviewing on the phone with a recruiter in Austria today, and I called him by his first name and he called me Herr Chaffman. I thought it was a personal preference of his to call me by my last name but this makes so much more sense now. I'll use last names when I don't know people too well. I still made it to the next round of the interview 🤙
Native English speaker, USA, first college degree was BA German. We were taught about a quasi-formal ceremony where the two of you decide to go familiar with each other. The verb (as I recall, just now confirmed by Windows Translator) was "duzen", similar to the French noun "tutoiment". We see examples of that ceremony, Bruderschaft, in Ernst Lubitsch's 1918 "Ich möchte kein Mann sein" ("I Don't Want to Be a Man", where a rebellious girl decides that being a man would be better, but then finds out how horribly women treat men -- formerly but no longer on Netflix) and in Die Fledermaus where the party-goers all drink Bruderschaft ("Brüderlein und Schwesterlein" -- "erst ein Kuss, dann ein 'du'"; as per Lubitsch, even men would exchange a kiss with each other). With that kind of training, at work in Germany I addressed everybody as "Sie". Until one co-worker threatened to hit me if I called him "Sie" one more time. Co-workers are Kollegen and Kollegen are automatisch geduzet, automatically address each other informally with "du".
Spanish does the same thing. Many years later, I heard a Spanish-speaking professor speak of her travels to conferences throughout Latin America. Every country's rules of tu-versus-usted were different. In some countries, if you used tu then you were being very disrespectful of that person, but in others if you used usted then you were being very haughty and placing yourself far above them, also disrespectful. For each and every individual country you had to learn which was acceptable.
Similarly, there was a scene in a French comedy that revolved completely around vous-versus-tu. The couple (man-woman) had a formal arrangement but were also becoming more personally involved. They started out their dinner with tu, but as the discussion became more heated and more pointed, one of them switched to vous and the other retorted, "Oh, so we're back to 'vous' again, are we?" I was listening more to the French than trying to read the subtitles, but as I recall the subtitles were incapable of describing what was actually going on.
@David Wise: Thank you for your comments. Even in informal German workplaces, there can still be a few Sie relationships. As you point out, wiith any language that has two forms of address, it depends on the culture and you often have to sense when it's appropriate to use which form. Film subtitles in English of course can't reflect this because there is no English equivalent. (However, if the context warrants, one could write something in a way that we'd only ever use informally, like "Hey, you!") \tp
Yeah, my DW English colleague is right. It is most definitely not presumed that all work relationships are "per Du." That differs by company - and especially by rank. But if your colleague had already offered you the "Du," then it would be considered impolite to continue saying "Sie" to her... Thanks for sharing!
To confuse everyone to the full extend, there is also a really rare but still existing third option.
The "Hamburger Du" or "Münchner Sie"
In these cases the opposite formal parts are used together like "Sie" together with First name or "Du" together with Surname.
The first option, when used, is often used in asymmetrical relations like boss talking to employee. E.g. Michael?! Kommen Sie bitte in mein Büro. Translates into: Michael, would you please come to my office?!
The other way round, using "Du" together with Surname, is to retain some sort or formality, even if there is actually some simytrical relation between the two persons interacting. Often seen in convenience stores or alikes, when the cashier's communicating with each other through the shop. E.g: Frau Müller, weist Du was die Äpfel kosten? Translates into: Mrs. Mueller, do you know what the apples cost?
That’s a funny one to watch as a German. I’ve been living in Scotland for 14 years nowadays almost forgotten how tricky it can be sometimes with Du und Sie
You can say you to me
"If it makes you feel any better, Germans make mistakes too". Ha, ha, I like that.
But don't overuse that 'hint'. As a practical rule for everything, Germans don't mistakes, and they never forget. Just joking ... kind of :)
I (at the end of my twenties) had some healthstuff going on and had to go into a hospital for a month. my neighbor was a 90 year old and we talked a lot and actually had a real good time. we liked each other but until the last day I kept the "Sie" cuz this gentleman was much older than me and I wouldn't have dared to use "Du" with him. on the last day of my stay he offered me that I may use "Du" ngl I'm still proud of the fact that this gentleman offered me this
You may say "you" to me.
Also it depends on the region. I am from Hamburg and here we say Du to nearly everyone, to cashiers, to bus or taxi drivers, to tourists needing help. Just on letters or to your boss you use Sie.
We have something similar in Mexican culture. We say “tu” informally and amongst friends, coworkers, close people. Then there’s “usted” which is used for older people, your boss, teachers, older family members, etc. some families heavily enforce it. I’m not sure which other spanish-speaking countries use “tu” and “usted”.
Just show respect. Use Sie when in doubt
Spanish speaker here.
I just translated "du" as "tu" and "sie" as "usted".
What a great video. As someone who speaks Arabic, I can see some similarities between the German and Arabic Languages. I am currently learning German so this has been very helpful in teaching me the appropriate time to say each word.
Khalid
In Denmark, the Du/Sie ("Du/De") forms both exist, but almost noone uses the Sie-form anymore. Even our prime minister is adressed with du. Noone misses Sie. It is used for adressing the queen only.
Yup. In Sweden, the polite form is reserved only for the King, and even him just on his birthday.
It's usual to say "du" among musicians, for example in choirs or in orchestras, both professionals and amateurs.
Similar to tú and usted in Spanish. Question though: what about for older family members? Like if I wanted to surprise my grandfather (speaks English and German) by speaking German?
Although in Poland we have only one word for "you"="ty" ,we follow exact same rules as germans and say "ty" for younger people and people that we know well and stick with "Pan/Pani"="Mr/Mrs" for others.
Minute 3:14, was it in Bonn? I recognize the building behind the old man and woman
Yes, this series is produced in Bonn. The DW (Deutsche Welle) headquarters is located there.
In Bengali language there are three word for You
তুই(Tui) - Most vulgur or informal way, people can get really offended by the wrong use. But specially best friends, siblings use it to each other, illiterate families, some(it used to be more before) parents use it towards their children. Police will beat you to half death if you use in front of them.
তুমি(Tumi) - It is different in two dialect of Bengali. In Indian Bengali dialect this is both Formal and informal. In Bangladeshi Bengali it's just informal. Normal friends, close people, elder people towards younger people, Families and more.
আপনি(Apni) - Most formal way of You.
Another example was in "Das Schreckliche Mädchen" (English, "The Nasty Girl", her nastiness being her persistence in learning what had actually happened in her town during the Hitlerzeit). At an event that was also her engagement party, one of her former teachers started to address her as "du", but quickly corrected herself since now her former student was a grown-up woman. Again, that was not covered by the subtitles.
Quite similar to Spanish "usted" (Sie) and "tú" (Du),
Im from chile and we speak spanish, we have tu (du) and usted (sie) and its like the same rules than in germany.
My university professors used 'Sie', but used the first names of the students.
Had a really funny situation recently.
I always use "Sie" when talking to my landlord, they are in their 60s or 70s and, well, my landlords. When my new flatmate came along and introduced himself he had the awkward situation of not being sure if they are landlords you get along with and just use "Du",so he asked. They said "Du" would be fine. But he proceeded to use "Sie" as if the question wasn't even asked.
Sometimes it just doesn't feel like "Du" is the right thing.
Are we talking about how Du or Sie changes with the setting? E.g. people in my company usually use Du unless there are customers etc. present.
Also, it has already been mentioned but most germans won't be offended if adressed "wrongly" by a non-native speaker.
my aunt once told me that she had been using "sie" with her co-worker for a few months and then she asked her if they should use "du" with one another and she said no, a few months later her co-worker then said it would be okay
For older people especially at work it is also common to address to younger employees with their first name and Sie: "Kate, könnten Sie mir bitte meine Akten bringen"
Ja das stimmt, obwohl das eigentlich nicht wirklich höflich ist (da kommt es sicherlich auch auf die Region an). So jung bin ich auch nicht mehr :)
oder das sogenannte Verkäuferinnen-Du: Frau Müller, kommst du mal...
That awkward moment you meet your friends parents and you are unsure if you are allowed to say Du or Sie
Du lehrst gut!
Well, the thing with if you know someone, then say "du" is not always right. For example: I know my violin teacher like 10 years now, but I still say "Sie" to her.
The Italians say 'poi darmi il tu' or 'Dann gib mir das du'.
Not sure if this applies to germany aswell but in switzerland, there's also the possibility to use the formal 'Sie' but with the firstname. This is a concept widely used in schools where the students are about 13 - 18 years old. But while the teacher will use your firstname (with a 'Sie' but without Mr. / Ms.) the students are usualy required to use the lastname of the teacher with Mr. / Ms.
Also in the military there's yet another confusing construct. Basicly you are formal with everyone unsless you have the same rank then you're informal but even if you're informal you use the lastname. If higher ranking personell talks to some one lower ranking they will refer to them with their rank and lastname (Soldat XY) if on the other hand lower ranking personell are talking to higher ranking they are required to announce themselves with the rank of the one they wish to talk to, their rank and their last name (Leutnant, Soldat XY) and then wait for them to respond before they start talking. Similar to the normal concept of the older one being allowed to offer the other one the informal 'Du' in the military the higher ranking one is allowed to offer the 'Du'.
Booyakasha! First name plus sie called da *Hamburger Sie* in Germany.
@@hkkhgffh3613 Or the "Supermarktdu". "Kannst du mal, Frau Müller?"
Is anyone anoyed by that backround
Sometimes you even use "Du" + last name or "Sie" + first name ^^
True. In our School they say Sie and the first name.😂
how to contact you ?
Here is my channel.
Its really not that bad. Just start with "Sie" and you will be corrected :D
You always say "Sie" as a student to your teachers, even if you know them as a neighbour or a friends parent and say "Du" in private, but in school it's always "Sie".
I'm 25, looking my age, and work at the register in a supermarket. If an older person is saying "Du" to me, I always respond with "Du", because if you get past a certain age it isn't approppriate to be called "Du" by a stranger, just because they are visibly older. It's a sign of respect, I only say "Du" to children or if someone says "Du" to me
So Sie is formal and Du is informal.
See a comment from a year ago. If your German is a bit shaky then listen carefully for the verbs “duzen” or “siezen”. Remember that z is pronounced ts. It means someone is asking you about that.
Mind blown
It's difficult for Germans as well: Our neighbors offered "du" to my brother, but I wasn't there at the occasion. What do I call them now? It's quite the Eiertanz...
That's not even the biggest problem with formals, the grammar of the verbs changes too, it's horrific:
for example "could you give me the book?"
"könnten Sie mir das Buch geben?"
"kannst du mir das Buch geben?"
I study german a a native and grammar su**s even for us
Genau genommen wird in Englisch immer gesiezt. Die Form für "du" die "thou" lautet ist über die Jahrhunderte im aktiven Sprachgebrauch verloren gegangen. Man findet sie aber häufig noch in alten Kirchliedern z.B. "Holy God we praise thy name" ("Großer Gott wir loben dich").
I really think the english language is better here. You don't have to think about what is appropriate for a specific person and can't be accidentaly weird or impolite.
Actually, there are two ways to say "you" in English: "thou" is formal (like Sie) and "you" is informal, like du. Obviously, thou (and the possessive "thy") fell out of use, but it still exist in old literature and prayers.
It's the reverse. Thou is du in German. Thy or thine is dein. Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Dein Stock und dein Stab geben mir Zuversicht.
I was super rude as a child I used to say du to the janitor at my school Herr Mann because when he introduced himself he said I'm the Herr Mann but what I thought he said is im the Herman and so I was allowed to say du to him because we were on a first name basis. Only in my teens when I met his nephew and connected him with his uncle because his father is the twin brother of the janitor I realized how rude I have been.
But luckily children are allowed to say du to older people and it counts as cute.
And now, have a look on Korean and some other Asian languages where they still have 3 forms of politeness, as we had it in German and English as well a long time ago...
Enjoyed the lesson but the computer-driven subtitles are a complete nightmare. Luckily I can follow the spoken word otherwise it can be offensive. Simple example of spoken "Sie" is "Z" using the American pronunciation of "zee." Confused, I was!!!
drop this ,,DU,, & say ,,IHR -this is more polite -even from way back in time !!!
The English also have this, a You for strangers and older people, and a Thou for friends and family. But they stopped using the friendly one. Problem solved!
Here in Sweden we used to have this system where you had to use the correct title for the one you spoke to, like Direktör or Doktor or Ingenjör or whatever. If you spoke to someone above you in status. But they just spoke to us lowly working class people as Sie, or in Swedish Ni. We've dropped that now, since like back in the sixties or seventies. But today younger people, like shop clerks, are trying to be polite and have started using this Ni again, well, like Sie in German. But that is not polite at all, it is like saying "I don't know what your title or status is and I don't care, you are just some useless minion, a Sie/Ni without a proper title!" Did this system exist in Germany as well, that you had to use the proper title of the person you spoke to, like Herr Doktor, and you only said Sie to people you couldn't be bothered with remembering their title?
The Dutch language is in that respect the same. We have u (sie) and jij (du). I think in Germans calling each other sooner sie than in Dutch. A lot of people find it insulting when you start of with u, so I stopped doing it. But in Germany I know its more common to do so. Germany is still a fairly hierarchical society.
dikk3tinus for an English speaker, "u" seems very cute :)
This also existed in the Englisch languane:
de.wiktionary.org/wiki/thou
O my gott!!!!!!! I feel alot better now
Why dont they know when to you Sie?
It is widely known that you say Sie to grown ups. The confirmation/communion/Jugendweihe marks the entering af adulthood, so from this point (14 to 15 years), it is Sie.
Its not that hard
In addition to the Mainstream "Du-Kate/ Sie-Frau Müser) here is also the "Berliner-Du" and the Hamburger-Sie" Which do the combination vice-versa and are also the "formal" cases,.
It’s nearly as complicated as the tipping system in the USA.
1:53 You can't go around and ask people how old they are because you don't know if you should ask "Wie alt sind Sie?" or "Wie alt bist du?" 😂
Also from 5th grade up you have to say sir to your teachers. Big no go to say du.
It's only a matter of respect.
Or you do it like 90% off the Germans change the sentence so you don’t have to use you like:
Könnten Sie/du mir bitte das Salz reichen? (Can please pass me the salt)
You would say: Bekomm ich bitte das Salz? (May I please have the Salt)
Kate implies she is a native English speaker. I've never heard her accent in any English speaking country before.
Sie is just so confusing to me because it means She, They, and formal You?
It just seems really complicated having one word meaning so many of the same things.
Like what if you end up saying something like, "did you hear that she said that they are coming tomorrow". Would you then get Sie used three times in a sentence in three different ways?
It seems like madness.
I just want to stick with Du but I don't want to offend anyone
In urdu there are 3 yous . Ap , tum and tu.
you can say you to me ;-)
Its almost impossible to really put any rule on this. It is constantly changing, and the "Sie" is slowly vanishing. In my experience it is very important where you are. In the north, "Sie" is still used more than in the south (including Switzerland and Austria).
And "when in doubt say Sie" is not that good of an advice as it sounds. It is just as wrong to say "Sie" if the other person or the others use "Du" as it is the other way around. That (just using "Sie") is something British and Australian people like to do in my experience and it is feels wrong and is kind of offensive as well, as it fells like "I am keeping distance from you lot here".
My advice would be: if you are in a shop, at the doctors, dealing with any kind of official or adult stranger on the street use "Sie". In any kind of private situation, at least in the south, use "Du". And in all other situations, listen to what the others do or just ask. Its no problem to ask, for instance at work or in a meeting. Its much better to ask than to just use "Sie" when everyone else is using "Du" (at most workplaces, its "Du" with everyone in my experience, at least in IT).
And use "Du" if you are at first name with someone, at least almost allways. Almost nobody will offer "lets use Du" nowadays, that is very old fashioned, but if someone says "I am Christian", you are now using "Du", and if someone says "My name is Meier" its "Sie". So this is a rule you can almost allways rely on, first name is "Du" and second name is "Sie".
And dont belive your books, "Sie" is not that common. Since you next to never use it with people you actually exchange more than a few sentences with, its much less used than "Du", at least in my experience.
Pretty much is the same thing with most Indian languages/Indo European languages. Once you grow up speaking like this. You wouldn't do all the mental analysis and it comes to you naturally.
Ich muss schon immer siezen
❤️❤️🤩🤩😍 😘 Kate
Böse Falle: das indirekte Duzen. Man spricht eine Person, mit der man eigentlich per-Sie ist an mit "ihr".
"Da könnt ihr mal für". "Ich habe gehört, ihr habt..." . "Klar, könnt ihr mir gerne mal per mail schicken".
Das stimmt - das kann gerade für Deutschlerner verwirrend sein!
Der Plural Majestatis ... was sind Sie, Österreicher. Also ehrlich das geht seit dem Kaiserreich zu weit.
@Roger Lynch Plural Majestatis: No- that would be Ihr (capitalized). That is completely out of use. Written "ihr" it means the plural form of the informal Du. So, you're speaking to a group of people, for example Co-workers but also including the boss addressing them with "ihr" - That can be very akward. On the other hand - addressing them all bei "Sie" sounds awkward, too. I don't know if there is a good solution. Maybe like: "Herr Müller, Sie können mir gerne eine eMail schicken, und ihr andren natürlich auch."
2:30 & 4:25 Was für ein putziges Kerlchen. :D
In Thai, there's 13 levels.
*Müng* - (informal : for friends, enemies, and some rude strangers)
*Ëng* - (informal : for friends, enemies, and some rude strangers - but softer)
*Rau*, *Naai*, *Ther*, "Kae" - (informal : for friends, acquaintances and good strangers)
.
*Ther* - (fancy : mostly used on novels, dramas, TV shows, and movies)
*Ther*, *Tua*, "*Tua æng*, *Rau*, "Kae" - (romantic : for lovers)
.
*Khun* - (formal : but don't say it to teenagers or kids. they will think you are weird) PS. *if you are new to Thai language, use this. It's appropriate for foreigners*
*Ther* - (formal : use only when you are adult (nearly elder) and are talking to an immature)
*Nu* - (informal : use only when you are adult (nearly elder) and are talking to an immature)
*Thaan* - (formal : for elderly, honorable person, Buddhist monk, monarchy)
*(many many royal words i don't remember)* - (formal : for monarchy only)
.
*Chau*, *Tua Chau* - (Ancient : small numbers of local people still use in the North and North East)
*(relatives words)* *Loong* (uncle), *Na* (aunt), *Yaai* (grandma), *Pee* (brother, sister) - (informal, cultural : since Thai culture is some kind of *Treat a person like one in your family* )
*(just begin with verbs)* - (informal, formal - but could make a person confuse of what perspective are you saying)
OMG impossible to learn for foreigners xD
There’s a pretty fair and easy rule for that. Everyone who’s not ok with the informal “Du” is a jerk. 😉
Ab 16 hat man glaube ich ein Anrecht auf die Sie Ansprache.
Germans never make mistakes (except east war)
sounds a bit like Spanish
I wonder if the same rule applies in German prisons.
they always say in jail sie
Du OR Sie? How to Say you a German l DW English wonderful Thank you lovely yes l How l Love you Kisses Berlinale Germany yes NEW YORK CITY .U.S.A.