Du aber Sie?

[VectraMan]

Sie/du and vous/tu is no more difficult than you/thee.

I think thee is an object pronoun - i.e. I giveth to thee, whereas Sie/du/vous/tu are subject pronouns, at least in the context we're talking about here. So you're completely wrong.

It always surprises me when I try to follow French or German films, or TV that people use the informal tu/du far more than I'd expect.

And it's du bist ok.

[cojak]

German speaking Switzerland is all "du" and first names between colleagues in their 40s or below. Above that it tends to "Sie" and Herr/Frau and surname. I believe the same trend is happening in Germany, and in France (some what more slowly) with vous/tu.

Sie/du and vous/tu is no more difficult than you/thee.

I have no idea how to use 'thee/thou'...

and you use those 2 there's thy and thine to consider as well, and then there's the structure to it. So when switching it's a different language to me.

[Antman]

I have no idea how to use 'thee/thou'...

Get yersen' to Barnsley! Thar'll be right there

[cojak]

Get yersen' to Barnsley! Thar'll be right there

AUE: Thou, Thee, and Archaic Grammar

[Pondlife]

You know when you see Jamie Oliver on TV and he's calling everyone 'mate' or 'mukka' and you think to yourself, that seems way too over familiar.

When you're in that situation use the formal.

I (rarely) find my self speaking German but when I do, I use Du with the most senior manager on site because we've been out for a beer and I am a contractor not his employee. I use Sie with the 68 yr old programmer who works on my project. It's an age respect thing.

[Antman]

That's interesting in that it is exactly the same thing that has happened in South America. Voce in Portuguese (short for Vossa Merced if memory recalls) is the formal 'you' and is used in the majority of Brazil whilst the informal tu form is used only in some areas of the south. Continental portuguese uses the tu form still in the same way that Spanish and French use it.


Argentina uses the equivalent 'vos' form more than the other spanish-speaking countries too. However all the spanish speaking latin countries use the more formal vos/usted form more than the continental Spanish do.

[OwlHoot]

... I've known others for longer and using the informal version of 'you' gets you a dirty look.

Used to be like that in English

Swearing: A Social History of Foul Language, Oaths and Profanity in English

The Quakers' use of _thou_ and _thee_, which was intended to show humility, became 'a sore cut to proud flesh .. We were often beaten and abused and sometimes in danger of our lives for using those words to some proud men, who would say, "What, you ill-bred clown, do you _thou_ me?"

Thou had been used as an insulting verbal form from c 1440; at the trial of Sir Walter Raleigh for treason in 1603, the Attorney General, Sir Edward Coke, harangued Raleigh insultingly: 'All that Lord Cobham did was by thy instigation, thou viper; for I thou thee, thou Traitor!'

[Paddy]

I must be getting to know my cleaner, as she proclaimed 'du ist ok!

I've known others for longer and using the informal version of 'you' gets you a dirty look.

Just use ausländer untermensch for the cleaner.

[petergriffin]

I must be getting to know my cleaner, as she proclaimed 'du ist ok!

I've known others for longer and using the informal version of 'you' gets you a dirty look.

It's very simple. It's 'Sie' unless they say 'du ist ok', in which case 'du' is ok.

[scooterscot]

Just use ausländer untermensch for the cleaner.

That's awful.

She's a lovely woman from the Ukraine, no shelf is too high for dusting, couch pulled for the vacuum. Until recently I employed someone from England, attention to detail was absent and he would disappear with the money the moment my back was turned only working a couple of hours when three were paid. Lazy so in so.