You plan to move to the Philippines? Wollen Sie auf den Philippinen leben?

There are REALLY TONS of websites telling us how, why, maybe why not and when you'll be able to move to the Philippines. I only love to tell and explain some things "between the lines". Enjoy reading, be informed, have fun and be entertained too!

Ja, es gibt tonnenweise Webseiten, die Ihnen sagen wie, warum, vielleicht warum nicht und wann Sie am besten auf die Philippinen auswandern könnten. Ich möchte Ihnen in Zukunft "zwischen den Zeilen" einige zusätzlichen Dinge berichten und erzählen. Viel Spass beim Lesen und Gute Unterhaltung!


Visitors of germanexpatinthephilippines/Besucher dieser Webseite.Ich liebe meine Flaggensammlung!

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Saturday, November 25, 2023

Do Germans still address people as Herr and Frau, or is that a past habit?

Profile photo for Jobst von Steinsdorff
Jobst von Steinsdorff
European


To address a common mistake of Americans learning German: You cannot address someone in German with Herr or Frau on their own as you can use Mister or Madam in English. 

(Addition since many comments point out that it is impolite to do that in English, in English it may be bad form but it still is linguistically correct, in German it is already wrong linguistically.) 

Neither in the past nor in the present. You could say „mein Herr“ or „meine Dame“ but that indeed is a bit old fashioned and depending on context people may suspect that it is said in irony. What you can do is use it in third person: „Die Dame ist vor mir dran!“ (The lady is ahead of me (in the queue))

Using Herr and Frau in combination with the surname, as calling someone „Herr Meier“ or „Frau Schmidt“ is, however, perfectly normal.

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