Du kannst ‘du’ benutzen. (pronounced as ‘doo kahnst doo binootzen’).
Quick note all pronunciations are in parentheses after the word.
English doesn’t have the same approach to formal titles as German.
I review the titles such as Frau and Herr in another post, but this one focuses on the grammar of du (doo), ihr (ear), and Sie (zee), or second person pronouns.
The purpose of formal versus informal is a quick way to show respect for those in authority or those who are older.
You would use du (doo) form between friends, classmates, acquaintances, and people of similar standing, or age.
Ihr (ear) is for you, plural. A group of people. When I was learning German, I always remembered this as the you all form.
Sie (zee) form is formal. It also gets confusing because sie (zee), specially lowercase, is third person plural, they.
I have a quick conjugation table underneath this paragraph to show first person, singular and plural, second person, singular and plural, and third person, singular and plural.
You will notice that sie (zee) is used a few times. The way to recognize which one is context or verb conjugation.
| Singular English | Singular German | Plural English | Plural German |
| I | ich (ick soft) | We | wir (veer) |
| You | du (doo) | You You formal | ihr (ear)Sie (zee) |
| He, she, it | er (air), sie (zee),es (ess) | They | sie (zee) |
Why is this important?
Simply put, formal use of Sie (zee) shows respect.
Similar to English we use, Yes sir, yes ma’am, Germans use du (doo) or Sie (zee).
It’s also equivalent to calling your professors or teachers, Mrs. Bachmann rather than, hey Kat. As there are teachers in English who are comfortable with using their first name, there are those teachers in German too.
They will say, “Du kannst ‘du’ benutzen.” This literally means you can use you informal.
In addition, the same way calling your professor by their first name before they’ve introduced themselves is rude, using the informal du with your professor in German is also rude.
It’s a quick way for Germans to show respect and hierarchy within their language.
Now the sie plural or Sie formal can be confusing when written. It’s less confusing when spoken because you know who you were talking to. Either way context is key to determine which one is being used.
Formal du vs Sie examples:
Du bist mein Bruder. You are my brother.
Sie seit meine Mutter. (not to be confused with: Sie ist meine Mutter – she is my mom). You are my mom.
Hast du einen Bleistift? Do you have a pencil?
Habt Sie meine Hausaufgaben? Do you have my homework?
