German Grammar (6)

Ausländisch (Grammatik)

Text & Grammatik

In this lesson, we will focus on the personal pronouns ich, Sie and du. We will examine the text Ausländisch closely to see how grammar contributes to its interpretation.

Sie (friendly), Sie (unfriendly), du — three ways to address others

• Ich sitze im Café.

I am on the phone. All the tables are taken.

The waiter arrives.

• Guten Tag. Was möchten Sie?

This site is perfect. Correct. It's professional. It makes me feel like the most important customer.

A little later, a woman speaks to me.

• Woher kommen Sie eigentlich?

Same pronoun. Very different intention.

This Sie does not open a conversation. It tries to confirm a suspicion.

You are not from here.

She asks me where I am from. She adds that I look foreign, which hurts. Das tut weh.

Margherita arrives. She sits down and asks:

• Hallo, wie geht es dir?

Now the pronoun changes.

du.

Same ich. Different relationship. Care instead of judgement.

In this story, ich stays the same. What changes is how others address me.

• Sie can be professional and respectful

• Sie can also create distance and discomfort

• du can mean closeness and trust

EN-DE

Ermanno wakes up. His thoughts return to the dream in the form of free-floating images.

Translate the following short sentences into German.

• I'm sitting in a café. I'm on the phone.
• Where are you from, actually? You look so foreign.
• A woman said I look foreign. That hurts.
• Maybe the woman wanted to flirt, but you were curt?
• Maybe that was it. But let's change the subject.

You can find the solutions here: Unit 2 - Lösungen.