"Shall I find a bed for you, sir?"
Translation:Skal jeg finde en seng til Dem, hr.?
11 Comments
Yes, but only because it's in the wrong form. The correct form is "herr". It's extremely rare to see it spelled out; usually people only use the "abbreviation" hr.
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Thanks Hertzum. Now I'm up to date on the differences between "Hr, Herr and Herre".
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That's interesting. I have always believed "Hr" to be an abbreviation of "Herre", meaning "Sir, Mister or man." As much as I can see from the following link, there is no difference between the full and the abbreviated form. I would be glad if you could enlighten me more, and thanks for answering :) http://ordnet.dk/ddo/ordbog?query=herre
Well, you're right that it is an abbreviation stemming from "herre", but when you use it in the indefinite, singular form it's " hr."
In definite singular you'd say "den herre" (which I believe it says further down in your link as well). :)
That being said though in Danish everyday language we hardly ever use it (we're overwhelmingly informal), but if we do it's the "hr."-form, which is pronounced like "herr" (omitting the e).
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I see. Well, thanks for the explanation Ellowyn (sounds Welsh to me), and much appreciated :)
Because the subject "you" and the object "you" are different in Danish :)
Think of it as the second person singular "you": When it is the subject of the sentence, we say "du"; however when it is the object of the sentence we say "dig":
You have a horse. = Du har en hest.
BUT
I love you. = Jeg elsker dig.
The same with De and Dem; De is used only as the subject; Dem is used as the object.
De har en hest. = You (polite) have a horse.
Jeg elsker Dem = I love you (polite).
Please note that both De and Dem are capitalised. I hope this helps.
