And what language and region is it?
I’ve noticed my language teacher uses the informal you in one language and the formal one in the other.
And what language and region is it?
I’ve noticed my language teacher uses the informal you in one language and the formal one in the other.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a comprehensive explanation when to use “Sie” over “du” in German. Very, VERY basically it’s this: if you’re close to the other person, it’s “du”, otherwise “Sie”. And then there’s a gazillion constellations where it’s not that easy and it seems learners keep finding more cases where what they learnt isn’t applicable. Most of these are intuitive to native German speakers, some are difficult to decide even for us.
Not that I think German is special in this. The correct way to address someone is less about language rules that you can memorise, more something you learn to intuit by getting to know the intricacies of the culture and its social mores.
Regarding your language teacher: what are those two languages? They may have different rules on how a teacher/student relationship works.
I’m in Austria speaking German and I’m learning French. Our rules for ‘du’ are very different from the ones in Germany though, and vary wildly regionally- from using ‘Sie’ for your drinking buddies to using ‘du’ for authority figures. From what I gather in this thread, the rules in Germany and France are similar?
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General rule of thumb that aligns well with what you do in English: “Sie” goes with last names, “du” goes with first names.
There are very rare exceptions, for example sports reporters tend to address some athletes with “Sie” and first name for reasons that nobody can explain. Those are not very relevant in everyday conversation, especially not if German is not your first language.
It used to be a cliché that you would call coworkers by their last name and “Sie” until that one fateful office Christmas party where your boss gets drunk and asks you to call him Fritz and “du”.
These days, things are a lot more relaxed. Many companies are adopting a rule that all employees should address each other as “du”, including upper management.
Well you don’t HAVE to start using “du”. There are people who have been friends for years who still use “Sie”. It’s a mutual thing, when you feel comfortable with the other person you can tell them it’s okay for them to call you “du” and usually they’ll reciprocate (if they don’t, they’ll tell you and you go back to “Sie”). Or you can take a bit of a risk and just start using “du”, without asking and the other person will follow (unless you gravely misjudged).
No I can’t tell you how to know when it’s the right time for that, don’t ask me about how to behave like a human, I have social anxiety, hah. But normal people can intuitively tell when that moment has come.
Also there are constellations where you use “du” from the beginning and where it would be weird to use “Sie”. Everyone on the internet is “du” unless you know you’d call them “Sie” in real life. Children are “du” and it’s up to the adult to decide whether this 16 year old deserves a respectful “Sie”. Young people tend to default to “du” among each other because “Sie” is stuffy and square.
Mind you, having grown up with this hasn’t helped with learning Japanese because while there are certain similarities (desu/masu corresponds VERY vaguely with “Sie”), there are too many differences for my experience with my native language to be of much help. But if you’d drop the suffix from their name in Japanese, it’s very safe to say you’d be on “du” in German.