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Comment by pvitz | Hacker News Reader

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.

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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".

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