Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul Riley
Just one thing,the 'die' 'der' always confused me.I understand die is informal,and der is formal?,like names or places,rivers etc...DER Rhine (interesting).
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Der/die/das when used as the definite article (English
the) before a singular noun indicates the gender of the word that follows (but not necessarily the gender of the person/place/thing the word refers to).
Der is masculine,
die is feminine,
das is neuter (singular).
Die is also the plural form for all nouns regardless of gender.
The formal/familiar differentiation comes into play with use of the German words(s) for
you when addressing other people.
Du (sing) and
ihr (pl) are the familiar forms,
Sie (sing, pl) is the formal form.
I don't know how strictly the
du/
Sie divide is maintained in modern German as spoken by the younger generation but the old rule I remember is, "only God, children, pets, close friends, and family are
du -everybody else is
Sie!"