Lesson 6: Politeness in German
In English, you can be polite by saying please more often. Or ‘could you’ instead of can you. In German, however, that’s totally different.
So one big guideline: if you’re not with friends, family or children: never say ‘du’. It’s considered very rude to use the informal form. A student speaking informally to his professor might even lose marks! Even if you make many mistakes, using du is really a no-go zone!
You can only use du if the person allows you to. Even if that person says ‘du’ to you, keep on using ‘Sie’.
So how does it affect the German language? Four ways:
- The personal pronoun: du vs Sie
- The verbs: du bist vs Sie sind
- The possessive pronoun: dein vs Ihr Name
- How you address: Herr Felder instead of Max, Frau Felder instead of Ulrike.
We’ll see the conjugation of the possessive later. But because this is so important and not used in English, it’s so early in the course.
One other remark: there’s even a verb for ‘saying du’ and ‘saying Sie’: it’s duzen and siezen. So if someone will propose to speak informally, he/she will use the verb ‘duzen’.
So remember: if in doubt, use the formal forms! Also, use bitte (= please) as much as possible.
Words:
- Duzen (= speak informally)
- Siezen (= speak formally)
- bitte (= please)