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Formal to familiar "you" | ||
Tags: Polite/Informal Forms | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4710 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 17 of 20 26 April 2013 at 12:06am | IP Logged | |||||
I know (I mentioned the Belgian rules differ in my post). And I've spent several years in Belgium and some of my friends are Belgians, I know that it works differently there. And in Brabant especially, gij/u are also used. But in standard Dutch from the Netherlands (which is the most common standard), these are the rules. Furthermore ge/gij/uw is a dialectal form (apart from using Gij in a Biblical text). Dialectal forms are many in Dutch and how people use forms in Belgium (and in many parts of the Netherlands) differs greatly. In Limburg they use du. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5012 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 18 of 20 26 April 2013 at 1:01am | IP Logged | |||||
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Mark, I see your point. There are situations when it takes more thinking and sometimes it
is a bit awkward. But I still thing the existence of the distinction brings us more advantages than troubles. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| FELlX Diglot Groupie France Joined 4773 days ago 94 posts - 149 votes Speaks: French*, English | Message 19 of 20 26 April 2013 at 2:18pm | IP Logged | |||||
It is generally difficult to know when to call somebody "tu" after you have been calling them "vous" for a while. As far as I am concerned, I prefer to stick to a particular pronoun for each person I get to talk to. If there is a total stranger whom I know will have to collaborate with me for a while, I will directly call them "tu" and I expect the same from them. If I am to meet someone I do not know anything about, I'll use "vous". However when somebody switches from "vous" to "tu" I do the same. Also, when somebody unexpectedly calls me with the informal pronoun, I do not take offense at it but I do feel the need to keep away from that person, it makes me feel like they're trying to get too close to me. Edited by FELlX on 26 April 2013 at 2:22pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| vogue Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4257 days ago 109 posts - 181 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish Studies: Ukrainian | Message 20 of 20 29 April 2013 at 12:38pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Today I learned in Italian there's no winning! I used lei with the woman I will be working for, and she
told me; 'no, use tu! I'm not that old!' She then went on to say that tu is widely accepted. I'm assuming that's true at least in the south where she's from, I can't say much for the north. Just for a point of reference for us Italian learners. Edited by vogue on 29 April 2013 at 12:40pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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