Timeline for Is "Möchte Sie" acceptable?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
10 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 1, 2015 at 20:39 | history | edited | user9551 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
deleted 1 character in body
|
| Nov 18, 2014 at 18:34 | comment | added | Holger | @O. R. Mapper: Lol, just before I started questioning my own experience as native-born Berliner I saw that the only reference is Schinkel’s Reisetagebuch from 1824. Well I know enough about today’s German language as practiced in Berlin. But if you know that there might be some Bavarian villages where that form is used, I will not question it, however, we were talking about the German language, weren’t we? | |
| Nov 18, 2014 at 18:10 | comment | added | O. R. Mapper | @Holger: This article identifies the form as typical for Berlin, though I personally have rather encountered it outside of larger cities in Southern Germany. I will not become any more specific so as to not give away any further personal details on myself, but be assured that that form exists, is in occasional use nowadays and that it is not at all perceived as "more formal than using 'Sie'", rather - as I said - as a form of addressing e.g. young (almost-)adults where you're not sure whether to use "du" or "Sie". | |
| Nov 18, 2014 at 17:32 | comment | added | Holger | @O. R. Mapper: as said, most Germans would classify 3rd person addressing as even more formal than using „Sie“ (think royal) so it doesn’t make the slightest sense to use it as a compromise between „Sie“ and „Du“. If you address an average German using 3rd person (s)he would call you eccentric, at best (believe me, I am an average German). And everyone claiming that a particular phrase has a regional use should provide at least one provable example, otherwise its just an empty statement. I don’t know of any region for which it would be even thinkable. | |
| Nov 18, 2014 at 17:10 | comment | added | O. R. Mapper | @Holger: It may not be widespread or just a regional use, but it is still somewhat common today, also among "younger" people (of, say, less than 30 years of age). As I explained, it can serve as a way to avoid the decision whether to use "du" or "Sie" when adressing someone. | |
| Nov 18, 2014 at 16:03 | comment | added | Holger | @O. R. Mapper: addressing somebody using 3rd person is entirely unusual today; that’s reserved for addressing the king but Germany doesn’t have a king… | |
| Nov 18, 2014 at 11:45 | comment | added | Stephie | But it would be "Sie" (capital letter) if adressing s.o. in the third person /honorific use. | |
| Nov 18, 2014 at 11:12 | comment | added | O. R. Mapper | Option 2 doesn't have to refer to a third person. In some regions, it is not completely unusual that others are adressed in the 3rd person form as "er" and "sie", respectively, when the one talking is unsure whether to use "du" or "Sie". cf., for example, this article: "Eine andere Zwischenform ist (...) die dritte Person Singular (Ansprache mit „Er“)" | |
| Nov 17, 2014 at 20:39 | comment | added | Emanuel | there are 3 possibilities. See clinch's answer. | |
| Nov 17, 2014 at 20:13 | history | answered | dervonnebenaan | CC BY-SA 3.0 |