If you are learning German, chances are very high that you struggled with the way of addressing people in German. 

To be more precise – when to address people with “Sie” or “du.” Don’t worry, you’re not the only one struggling with that; there are actually many people with German as their mother tongue who don’t really know what to do.

SEE ALSO: To du or not to du: How to crack one of Germany's trickiest etiquette dilemmas 

So if you meet someone new – let’s say it’s a woman and her name is Anna Blume – then you start of with calling her “Frau Blume.”

You might ask her “Möchten Sie einen Tee, Frau Blume?” (“Would you like some tea, Ms. Blume?”)

If everything goes well and you get along, at some point she might say “Darf ich Ihnen das Du anbieten?” (literally: “May I offer you “The You”?” – “May I offer you to address me informally?”)

With offering you “The You,” she is asking you if you want to move on from normal acquaintances to good acquaintances. If you say yes, you and Anna are per du.

You are now allowed to call her Anna and change your former question to “Anna, möchtest du einen Tee?” (“Anna, would you like some tea?”)

The verb for being per du is duzen, which doesn’t have a literal translation, but basically means “to address someone informally.”

Be careful with the du, though. Even though it starts getting more and more popular to address everyone informally (especially in big cities like Berlin and Hamburg), many people (especially elderly folk) consider it to be rude if you just walk up to them and call them “du.”

Sprechen Sie Deutsch? – The polite way to say: Do you speak German? Photo: Deposit Photos/nito103

Examples:

Mein Arzt und ich sind per du.

My doctor and I are addressing each other informally.

Dann hat sie mir das Du angeboten.

She offered me to address her informally.

Wir? Ja, wir duzen uns.

Us? Yeah, we address each other informally.

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