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- What is the purpose of Ihr?
What is the purpose of Ihr?
At school we never learn about Ihr when we write up our verb tables. I've never learnt it and so I don't see the point in it. Would somebody be kind enough to explain it to me?
13 Comments
@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: 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. ;-)
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
