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[News] Amiga translating website and developer informationANN.lu
Posted on 29-Apr-2000 11:55 GMT by Christian Kemp3 comments
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In a posting on the German Amiga-Club forum, G'o'tz Ohnesorge asked whether he should translate occurences of the word "you" on Amiga's web pages and the developer documents into the informal German "Du", or the more formal "Sie". Here's what G'o'tz originally wrote (in German, of course).

You - Du oder Sie?
Wie soll ich auf der Amiga-WebSite und in der EntwicklerDokumentation "You" uebersetzen? "Du" oder "Sie"? Ich tendiere eher zum Duzen, ist naeher am Original - "Sie" gibt's auf Englisch eben eigentlich nicht. Fuehlt sich dadurch jemand ins Knie gebissen? Kommentare per eMail an mich, bevor's zu spaet ist .. ;) Danke.

Amiga translating website and developer information : Comment 1 of 3ANN.lu
Posted by Mike Bouma on 28-Apr-2000 22:00 GMT
I think "Sie" would be more appropriate, as it is used when you don`t know the person you are talking to personally. "Du" is used when you are communicating with relatives, friends, acquaintances or children. But because the web pages and documents is read by anyone "Sie" would be best.
It`s great that you don`t have to worry about that in the English language. :) In the Dutch language you also got "Jij" and "U" just like in the German language.
Sincerely, Mike Bouma.
http://www.stormloader.com/amiga
Amiga translating website and developer information : Comment 2 of 3ANN.lu
Posted by Steve on 29-Apr-2000 22:00 GMT
In reply to Comment 1 (Mike Bouma):
Yes, I think 'sie' would be more appropriate, but as a German you should be
the one to know which mode is appropriate in a given situation! By the way,
you are wrong (Mike Bouma) to say there aren't two such forms in English.
English has 'thee' and 'thou' for the most intimate relationships but of
course they are not used very often anymore. But you should find plenty of
them in an old King James Bible!
Amiga translating website and developer information : Comment 3 of 3ANN.lu
Posted by Mike Bouma on 29-Apr-2000 22:00 GMT
In reply to Comment 2 (Steve):
thou, thee, thy, thyne....
Steve I was talking about modern English, I did read some parts of old bibles in English myself. BTW I am from The Netherlands but most Dutch people speak German and English perfectly as well.
I think it`s better to just have "you" in English. When using "Sie" in German it`s considered as being polite, but also causes some distance as you don`t use "Sie" when talking to friends.
BTW Which would you prefer?
1) Yesterday, I saw thee and thy friend John getting into a car. Wast thou going somewhere with him? I saw thee sitting behind the wheel, so I thought thou wert (or thou wast) the driver. Was the car his or thine? I didn’t know thou hadst thy license.
2) Yesterday, I saw you and your friend John getting into a car. Were you going somewhere with him? I saw you sitting behind the wheel, so I thought you were the driver. Was the car his or yours? I didn’t know you had your license.
Sincerely, Mike Bouma.
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