Du vs. Sie

Different from Englsih, but similar to Bahasa Indonesia, German has a distinctive “you”. To someone we don’t know, or in a business nature, it is advised to have the formal “you”: “Sie”. But when we know each other or the person we talk to is about our age (or younger), the informal “you” (du) woud be okay.

Lately, more and more people use “du” instead of “Sie”, but it is always better to have the formal form until they welcome us. Once they call us with “du”, it means we are also allowed to call them in informal way.

Another point is, the formal “you” is always started with the capital. It is done so to differemtiate “you” with “she” and “they”.
In German, “she” and “they” are also “sie” (but not with the capital).

When the “sie” is in the middle of sentence, it would be easy to differentiate it, but what if it’s in the beginning of a sentence? Or what if it’s spoken?

It’s also easy! We’re going to learn about it later!

You Got Me At The First Hello

Introducing ourselves is a good start to learn German.

Michael: “Guten Tag! Mein Name ist Michael.”
Yoan: “Guten Tag! Ich bin Yoan.”
Gregor: “Und ich heiße Gregor.”

As you could see above, there are three ways to tell others our name. To ask other’s name, we could ask following sentences:

• “Wie heißt du?” (informal)
• “Wie heißen Sie?” (formal)
• “Was ist dein Name?” (informal)
• “Was ist Ihr Name?” (formal)
• “Wer bist du?” (informal)
• “Wer sind Sie?” (formal)

In a conversation, it would be nice to say “Nice to meet you” when we’re introduced to someone. In German, it’s “Sehr erfreut.” or “Es freut mich, dich (“Sie” for formal form) zu kennen.”

To end the conversation? “Auf Wiedersehen!” or if it’s on the phone, just say “Auf Wiederhören!”

Es ist einfach, oder?

It’s not (that) hard…!

So many people said that German is a difficult language. Yoan’s sister-in-law even said that if she was born not as a German, she wouldn’t like to learn German. But as a non-German native speaker, Yoan found it half true. It’s not that hard, although it’s also far from easy. But Michael found out a key to make learning German easier: think in English. It works! So, let’s start, from the sketch…