Du aber Sie?

[NotAllThere]

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....

Don't thee thou me, thee thou thyself, and see how thee like it - as we used to say in Barnsley.

Du/Sie are nominative pronouns. Thee is accusative (and dative, often in practice used in the nominative), equivalent to dich/Sie. Therefore I should have said

Du/Sie is no more difficult than thou/you.

So I think "you're completely wrong" is a little overstating the case.

For completeness, thy and thine are both genitive - i.e. possessive. Thine is commonly (but not exclusively) used before a word beginning with a vowel.

[cojak]

Grammar, grammar, grammar, grammar...

WHOOSH....

[scooterscot]

Again I'm reminded how old the language is. Something that can be right odd when using an modern English word in conversation.

Recently I said to a neighbour, 'you're taking the Micky' the response: "Who is Micky and where am I taking him?"

[VectraMan]

Don't thee thou me, thee thou thyself, and see how thee like it - as we used to say in Barnsley.

Du/Sie are nominative pronouns. Thee is accusative (and dative, often in practice used in the nominative), equivalent to dich/Sie. Therefore I should have said

Du/Sie is no more difficult than thou/you.

So I think "you're completely wrong" is a little overstating the case.

For completeness, thy and thine are both genitive - i.e. possessive. Thine is commonly (but not exclusively) used before a word beginning with a vowel.

Okay, you were only completely wrong based on the words that you used. Substituting different words to the ones that you used, and you would be right.

But the comparison with thou/you isn't accurate, as du/tu are in every day usage, whereas in English, thou is not. The choice of thou or you isn't difficult at all; not if you're in the 21st century.

[NotAllThere]

Same object, different case. But if you can't see the difference, then that's fine; only to be expected from the monolingual. Den Mann beißt der Hund.

Thee/thou etc. is still in use in Yorkshire.

[Ticktock]

The choice of thou or you isn't difficult at all; not if you're in the 21st century.

Thee/thou etc. still in use in Yorkshire.

Exactly.

[socialworker]

Same object, different case. But if you can't see the difference, then that's fine; only to be expected from the monolingual. Den Mann beißt der Hund.

Thee/thou etc. is still in use in Yorkshire.

Is thatnot "der Mann beisst den Hund" ?

[darmstadt]

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

"Wir sind per du." - Anrede: Per Du mit dem Chef | ZEIT ONLINE

[VectraMan]

Same object, different case. But if you can't see the difference, then that's fine; only to be expected from the monolingual. Den Mann beißt der Hund.

I picked you up on your mistake and I'm the one that can't see the difference? Is it nice on your planet?

And I know all about the horrors of Den Mann beißt der Hund (which means the dog bites the man, and not the man bites the dog as any reasonable person used to speaking any reasonable language would assume). How about Die Frau beißt die Katze?

[suityou01]

Ask Suity, he'll know the ins und aus of these things...

Very droll, und alzo correct. It's a generation thing really. If you are of the modern generation then you would duzen everyone as they are pretty relaxed about this kind of stuff. Of course you would use Sie if talking to a senior boss, or policeman etc.

Again, also if you were quite young and a pensioner asked you to stop kicking the ball against the wall the youngster would be expected to use Sie.

The concept of using Sie for folks you don't yet know has been largely pretty much relaxed.

In SS's case, he is right as the cleaner would use Sie as he is paying her for a service. Just as a waiter would call you sir. The fact that she has relaxed it means she see's SS is quite chilled out and therefore can chill out too.

Klar?