Hacker News Reader

Comment by ido | Hacker News Reader

I don't know where you're at but I have never seen this treated as that big of a deal in my 8 years of living in Austria & 7 in Germany unless you're talking to the prime minister (and especially not if you're obviously not a native speaker).

Maybe more comparable to addressing someone by their first name instead of Mr./Ms./Mrs. <last-name>.

View on HN

That might not be an issue on the countryside (everything outside Vienna ;), but it is definitely very impolite to address another adult person with "du" instead of "Sie" if they have not offered you to call them with the informal pronoun. However, that might be different with younger people.

Most definitely. Being relatively young, I don't think it's any different. In a work environment it's always "Sie", until one is offered "du". First name/family name depends on how companies/individuals handle it.

Apart from that, people handle it differently. "Sie" basically always for people older than you and some use "du" for others around your age (unless it's in a more professional setting). There is no difference between the countryside and cities.

Seems to be true for Vienna. I'm not native speaker and can say that some people weren't pleased to be called "du" (same age or not) and the whole city seems very formal.

I wonder if I'm the only person stomping round the house now singing:

Sie!

Sie hast!

Sie Hast Mich!

*Sie haben

I would guess they misspelled "hasst" ("she hates me")?

I guess 23 year old industrial metal songs aren't shared cultural references on HN the way I'd assumed...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3q8Od5qJio

Well, the original plays on the fact that "Du hast mich" and "Du hasst mich" sounds the same. That ambiguity is only there with 'Du', not with 'Sie'.

I'm only really familiar with it b/c it's on the matrix soundtrack

It's intentional wordplay. They lyrics are "Du hast" and it follows up with "Du hast mich gefragt".

Du/Sie and first name/last name are almost without exception divided along the same lines in German. Sie plus first name is how a person with extreme status expectations would address their butler, and just as old-fashioned. "I'm sorry you can never be my peer but I respect you anyways". Last name and Du would be using the last name as a nickname in a decidedly first name situation. Think "bro" but timeless.

Oh, there's more to it. Compare https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamburger_Sie

I can vouch for the Kassiererinnen-Du being used. My mom runs the butcher in a supermarket. She and and many of her coworkers share a lot about themselves, but they still address each as other as Frau Schmidt and Herr Schulze.

Apparently mincing one thing and putting it between a pari of two other things is a specialty of Hamburg, who knew!

"Sie" and first name was used at a smallish company (~50 employees) I worked at previously. It's just a combination of respect and familiarity. Additionally, several women really liked being called by their first name as it "made them feel less old".

This was common in the United States Southeast as a kid and still is to a lesser degree e.g. ”Miss Anne, please can I go outside?”

Reply on news.ycombinator.com