h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Yeah!

I like it very much!

You already stated that "Lord knows who else" distinguishes between polite and familiar "Yous". I know that Italians do and that the Spanish even have a polite form in both singular (usted) and plural (ustedes) used in third person.

HP
»--.

cheers HP

Hey folks,

nice entry indeed... there's a famous Lübke (Germany's former President) statement 'you can say you to me'.

SchrEck Inc.

Indeed, living in the Netherlands I often wonder what to say to people. Here it has a french name: tutoyeren (or something like that)
But at least we don't have any problems with translating movies, we just put subtitles underneath.

Nice entry indeed!

It's interesting when language moves from the subconscious (just something we use to communicate without thinking) to the conscious (something we actually ponder on).

Indeed a nice entry. I had understood from my German colleagues that if you're on first name terms then you would automatically dutzen rather than sietzen (or however you spell them).

Of course English, having dropped these nuances, saves a lot of problems. But the lack of distinction between 2nd person singular and plural in English is itself a problem. Obviously there is a need for this distinction, which has given rise to constructions like yous, you guys, y'all.

Another type of language is Hebrew, which doesn't distinguish between familiar and polite versions but has 2nd person male and female. That usually isn't a problem, but you know those phone calls when you're not sure whether you're talking to a man with a high-pitched voice or a woman with a deep voice...

I was talking to someone who was at a German dinner party once and got tangled up in a web of Duzen and Siezen... most people were calling her Du, she was having to call most people Sie, there were the conversations going on where one participant was Sie and the other Du, and the times when she was managing to have two different conversations at once, where in one she was talking to a "Du" and in the other a "Sie", and then the ones where she had a Du and a Sie in the same conversation...

And don't even get me started on "ihr"...

Great great article. I work for a British company in Germany. My first day there my very stern female boss told me that everybody used "Du" with each other, I was not to "Sie" anyone within the company, no matter how senior. It certainly caused me a degree of stress at the beginning - she was so serious and formal that my first instinct was always to use Sie, but I used to get a look from her as if I was an incorrigible child who simply would not learn!

In Ireland we get around the second person singular and plural issue by using "you" for singular and "yee" for plural.

Great discussion.

This entry reminds me of a party where I met a friend of a friend - lets call her Anna - , who Siezed me, but was on Du terms with the others. This led to the apparently crazy situation where my friend was referring to something Anna had said, and because she was explaining it to me had to say "As Frau Schmidt was saying ...", because we were Siezing each other!

And I cause no end of trouble now that I'm past the under 35 automatic Du stage. My surname has a Mc, so no-one can say it, but they can't handle the invitation to just use my first name ...

Yes, I'm a native and it still confuses me. At Uni, Sie has crossed the line and is mildly insulting if used to a fellow student, shows they don't really fit in. And since I do medieval reenactment, I get practice at the Ihr/Er thing too, that's always good there for bridging the gap when you don't know how to address people