German has two ways to say “you”. Use du with friends, family, children and anyone who has offered it; use Sie — always capitalised — with strangers, officials, and people older or more senior than you. For more than one person the informal plural is ihr. When in doubt with an adult, start with Sie and wait to be offered du.
Published 26 October 2026
By Gora Academy · Editorial policy
English gives you one word for the person in front of you: you. German makes you choose, and the choice is social before it is grammatical. Pick du and you are being friendly and familiar; pick Sie and you are being respectful and keeping a polite distance. Get the pronoun right and the rest of the sentence follows; get it wrong and a German speaker notices at once — though they will forgive a learner.
Three forms cover every situation. Two of them are informal; one is the polite form for anyone you do not yet know.
| Form | Who it is for | Example |
|---|---|---|
| du (informal, one person) | Friends, family, children, teenagers, close colleagues, pets — and anyone who has offered you du. | Woher kommst du? — Where are you from? |
| ihr (informal, more than one) | A group of people you would each call du. | Woher kommt ihr? — Where are you (all) from? |
| Sie (formal, one or many) | Strangers, officials, shop and restaurant staff, business contacts, and people clearly older or more senior. Always written with a capital S. | Woher kommen Sie? — Where are you from? |
Notice that Sie does the work of both singular and plural polite “you”. You never have to decide between a formal singular and a formal plural — one word serves for the official behind a counter and for a whole boardroom.
Choosing the pronoun also chooses the verb ending, so the two travel together. Here are three everyday verbs across all three “you” forms, with the irregular sein (to be) that you will use constantly.
| “You” form | kommen — to come | haben — to have | sein — to be |
|---|---|---|---|
| du | du kommst | du hast | du bist |
| ihr | ihr kommt | ihr habt | ihr seid |
| Sie | Sie kommen | Sie haben | Sie sind |
The polite Sie always takes the same form as the “they” form (sie kommen, they come) — the only difference in writing is the capital letter. That overlap is a gift: learn the Sie verb forms and you have the plural they for free. For the full present-tense pattern behind these endings, see German present tense, and for sein and haben in full, sein and haben.
The possessive “your” follows the same split: dein for du, euer for ihr, and the capitalised Ihr for Sie. So Ist das dein Auto? (Is that your car?) to a friend becomes Ist das Ihr Auto? to a stranger.
Commands split three ways too. “Come here” is Komm her! to one friend, Kommt her! to several, and Kommen Sie her! to someone you address formally. The polite command keeps the pronoun Sie right there in the sentence; the informal ones drop the pronoun entirely.
Sie is the safe default with any adult you do not know. Use it with officials and service staff, in shops, banks, restaurants and offices, with a new colleague more senior than you, with your landlord, your doctor, and with older people generally. If you are an adult speaking to another adult for the first time, begin with Sie. Choosing Sie is never rude; choosing du too early can be.
Use du with family, friends, children and teenagers, with fellow students, and with anyone who has invited you to. Among university students, in many sports clubs, and increasingly in start-ups and creative workplaces, du is the everyday default between colleagues. You also use du with pets. The guiding idea is closeness or shared informal ground — if you are clearly peers in a relaxed setting, du usually fits.
Relationships often start on Sie and move to du once people know each other. Traditionally the offer comes from the older or more senior person (and, in older etiquette, from the woman): Wollen wir uns duzen? — “Shall we say du to each other?” — or simply Du kannst mich gerne duzen, “You’re welcome to call me du.” Once du is offered, accept it and switch; going back to Sie afterwards would feel like a step backwards.
German even has verbs for this: jemanden duzen is to address someone as du, and jemanden siezen is to address them as Sie. When two people have agreed on the informal form, they are per du.
Three slips are worth guarding against. First, forgetting the capital letter: polite Sie and Ihr are capitalised in writing, which is also how a reader tells them apart from sie (she/they) and ihr (her/you-plural). Second, mixing the verb up — saying Sie kommst or du kommen; the pronoun and the ending must match. Third, reaching for du with an official or a much older stranger because it feels friendlier: in German that reads as too familiar, and Sie is the warmer-sounding choice there.
Choose the right form, then the matching verb.
Answers: (1) Wie heißen Sie? — formal, Sie + -en. (2) Wie heißt du? — informal singular, du + -st (with the -ß- stem, du heißt). (3) Habt ihr Zeit? — informal plural, ihr + -t. If those three came out right, you can already pitch your “you” at the right level for the room.