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Old May 11, 2018, 02:32 AM
ArcheM ArcheM is offline
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Member Since: Dec 2016
Location: Russia
Posts: 634
Haven't we already talked about "ihr"? At least I'm sure I have mentioned the informal/formal distinction a couple times.

Yeah, although I'm really no help there. To me that comes naturally, with my mother tongue... Speaking of which, it can be interesting to see translators struggle to invent that distinction when translating from English to Russian (and other languages where it exists, I suppose). Especially when it exists, it's often accompanied by a ritual, or at least an acknowledgement of the fact that a transition from formal (du) to informal (Sie) has been made. So, suppose, two office workers meet for the first time. Naturally they address each other formally. Then they fall in love. Nothing about their forms of address may have changed in English (well, usually it does, but not in the pronouns), but in Russian and German that would sound really strange... Oh, and to take a less melodramatic example, I've noticed that often in interviews there a short prelude where the parties establish which pronouns they're going to use (at least on Rocket Beans TV, where it's normally "du")...

Maybe it's not so foreign to you, after all. Except instead of pronouns it's "Can I call you Bill?" Of course, pronouns are just used much more often than names.
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