@gnarlie This is all true, but I think that Emily is asking about the 2nd person plural (you all - or yinz if you are from Pittsburgh) -- rather than saying "a group of friends that you would individually call 'du'"

I would just think of it as the plural you - when you are speaking to a group of peers (or at least a group of people that you wouldn't call Mr. or Mrs.

'ihr' or 'Ihr'? 'ihr' with the lower case 'i' is a pronoun to refer to a group of friends, a group of people who individually, you would call 'du'. It's also the dative form of 'sie' singular: 'Ich gebe ihr das Buch', 'I give her the book'. It's also the possessive pronoun for feminine singular: 'ihr Rock', 'her skirt'. With the capital I, it's the possessive from the formal you, 'Sie': 'Ihr Buch', 'your book'.

Yes, the normally capitalized form of Ihr is just the plural form of Du. (familiar you all)

It´s conjugated a bit differently Du bist, Ihr seid. Du hast, Ihr habt. Du willst, Ihr wollt, Du hilfst, Ihr helft usw.

Ich hoffe, daß das dir hilft

To make the confusion complete: 'Ihr' can also be used to address a very high ranking person (like a king). In that case you use 'Ihr' and the plural conjugation: 'Ihr fahrt mit dem Fahrrad, Eure Majestät' (You ride a bike, Your Majesty)

No, Sie is definitely not for plural informal. I've never seen that taught in the 'States or in Germany.

@Emily: I guess you mean 'sie' which is 'they'. 'Sie' is singular formal.

@Emily: Or do you mean constructions like this: 'Meine Damen und Herren, ich heiße Sie willkommen' (Ladies and gentlemen, I welcome you). In this case 'Sie' is the accusative form of 'Ihr'.

When we learnt our verb tables we would go like this; to have ~ haben Ich habe ~ I have Du hast ~ You have Er/sie/es hat ~ He/she/it has Wir Haben ~ we have Sie haben ~ you have sie haben ~ they have I'm just curious as to what Ihr is (with the capital). We sometimes use it but I've never really known what it means.

@Emily: OK. Now I see what you mean. Your conjugation table is fine. 'ihr habt' is plural informal for you', 'Sie haben' is plural formal for 'you'. Sorry, I missed that form my earlier post.

Thanks, so when conjugating the verb for regular verbs do you just add a 't' to the stem?

Hmm, as I'm a native speaker of German, I don't really know the conjugation rules given to learners of the language. I just checked a few regular verbs and didn't find any exceptions. So, I think your rule should be ok. ;-)

Haha, well your English is very good (if I may say so myself).

Yes, for regular verbs, it is a 't' added to the stem. The irregular, a couple of the more common ones of which I listed above, just have to be l learned, but they're not too bad. After a while, you won't even think of it and it will just come automatically. Until then, hang in there