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Ignoring du/ihr forms in German learning? | ||
Tags: Polite/Informal Forms | German | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| Henkkles Triglot Senior Member Finland Joined 4198 days ago 544 posts - 1141 votes  Speaks: Finnish*, English, Swedish Studies: Russian | Message 9 of 31 23 December 2013 at 11:11am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I'm not an expert but I think that mentality belongs to the sixties and you can't really offend someone by using "du" especially if they can hear you're not a native speaker.
My guideline is that if someone is offended by a non-native using the wrong honorific they're not worth my time anyway. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4789 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 10 of 31 23 December 2013 at 11:56am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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How are you supposed to reach B1 if you can't even conjugate verbs properly?
You should learn all forms, because you can't always use "Sie". It will be too formal in a lot of situations. As Henkkles said, that piece of advice belongs to the Sixties. Today, people say a lot more often "du" than at those times. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Cabaire Senior Member Germany Joined 5544 days ago 725 posts - 1352 votes | Message 11 of 31 23 December 2013 at 1:15pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
It is not. Many verbs have a change of stem: Sie sprechen Du sprichst 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4652 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 12 of 31 23 December 2013 at 1:29pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Ignoring du/ihr is like ignoring to talk.
5 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Doitsujin Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5265 days ago 1256 posts - 2363 votes Speaks: German*, English | Message 13 of 31 23 December 2013 at 2:14pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Indeed.
As in any language, there are irregular stems, but don't you agree that even if a foreigner uses the wrong stem, he'll still be understood in most cases? BTW, when I notice stem-related conjugation errors or other minor mistakes, I usually try to use the same pattern with the correct form immediately afterwards. Smart language learners usually recognize what I'm doing and self-correct their mistakes. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4478 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German | Message 14 of 31 23 December 2013 at 3:31pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Of course you are correct. I think I've just internalized these forms so strongly that I don't even think about this anymore. I would never say "Du sprechst" as it just sounds wrong, which is why I didn't think of it. But more generally I would say learn that you add -st or -t to the end of the verb stem, AND learn the exceptions. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Tollpatchig Senior Member United States Joined 3952 days ago 161 posts - 210 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Maltese | Message 15 of 31 23 December 2013 at 4:21pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I don't recommend postponing the du/ihr forms. While of course you would use Sie with strangers and elders it's really awkward to use Sie with your friends. In fact, it's even a bit awkward (IMHO) to use it with people around my own age. I don't know how old you are but I think that most young Germans and Austrians 'duzen' each other rather than 'siezen'.
Another thing, if you're chatting online or Skyping (or plan to) with any German speaking people just know that even people older than you are using du rather than Sie. I'm 23 and I do a Skype language exchange with a 41 year old and I use du with him and there are no issues or feelings of being insulted. In fact whenever I chat online and try to use Sie with older people they quickly tell me to use du with them. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| geoffw Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4633 days ago 1134 posts - 1865 votes Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian | Message 16 of 31 23 December 2013 at 4:53pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Excellent point, BUT you have to learn that stem anyway if you want to use the 3rd person "er spricht," so if you're ONLY leaving out the 2nd person forms, it still is just a question of adding the correct ending, no? 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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