• Tar_Alcaran@sh.itjust.works
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    12 days ago

    Dutch has a formal and informal 2nd person word (think “you” vs “thou”).

    I have an intern who will not stop using the formal version, and it feels super awkward. I keep telling her to stop it, but she said she always uses with older people…

    She’s 23, I’m mid 30s. Ouch.

    • TheRealKuni@lemmy.world
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      11 days ago

      Fun fact about English, “you” was actually the more formal one. But since we don’t use “thou” anymore, and most people know it from old-timey speak and church, we think of it as more formal today.

      • Tar_Alcaran@sh.itjust.works
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        11 days ago

        Well, people in the past talked MUCH more formally than we do.

        If I talked to my grandfather in 1400 the way I talk to my husband today, he’d probably disown me.

      • Akasazh@feddit.nl
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        11 days ago

        Fun fact about Dutch: The informal is ‘jou/je’ and de formal is ‘u’, the last one, however, is pronounced like English ‘you’, the former is pronounced like old-time-english thou.