As soon as you address somebody by his or her first name, then you would use _du_: > e.g. Hallo Peter, wie geht's dir? On the other hand when you call a person by the surname, you would use _Sie_: > e.g. Frau Müller, können Sie mir helfen? note: always use a capital lettre with _Sie_. **Edit: What I wrote above is the usual case, meant as a direct answer to the question, there are some exceptions to this rule however.**