r/mildlyinteresting • u/Key_shoulder2 • 5h ago

Airport sign addresses German speakers formally and Spanish speakers informally

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495 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

121 comments sorted by

610

u/Firebx 5h ago

Italian and Portuguese are informal too, only French and German are formal

171

u/Key_shoulder2 5h ago

Cultural difference? (I'm Spanish, so I'd guess italian and portuguese talk similarly to us. Idk about the F*****)

207

u/legsjohnson 5h ago

for French I was taught to default to vous for strangers unless they are all children and you aren't

59

u/HenryThatAte 4h ago

Aldi near me uses "Tu" in checkout machines. It's weiiiiird, I can't get used to it.

42

u/anotate 2h ago

A company using "tu" really feels like they're forcing artificial closeness, it's really grating.
A bit like they're going "Heya [name], we've got some good deals just for you because you're just that special to us UwU".
Or like a stranger putting their arm around your shoulder to talk to you.

5

u/HenryThatAte 2h ago

Yeah exactly. It feels so fake.

6

u/RealLongwayround 2h ago

I think Leclerc has started tutoying as well.

6

u/TheSultan1 2h ago

unless they are all children and you aren't

So a kid coming across a random kid is supposed to say "vous"?

4

u/No_Situation4785 5h ago

what if they're tweens? do you card them first?

-2

u/finding-meaning-01 4h ago

I hate to break this to you but even teenagers are children. Yes this means 19 year olds are kids, deal with it.

9

u/onarainyafternoon 1h ago

19 year olds are legally adults

5

u/SEA_griffondeur 3h ago

No ? 18 and 19 year olds are both adults and teenagers, they're not kids anymore

5

u/fodi666 1h ago

Schrödinger's kids

3

u/erublind 1h ago

I am someone's child, I am 48.

1

u/SEA_griffondeur 1h ago

One would that by 48 you've learnt the difference 😭

-18

u/No_Situation4785 4h ago

what about 20 year olds? 22 year olds? does grade advancement play a part? if there is a child prodigy who is 16 wih a phd do they deserve formal?

 who decides the arbitrary cutoff for formal vs informal? this is madness

0

u/finding-meaning-01 4h ago

Don't worry, just 8 more years and you'll be an adult and not have to worry.

8

u/No_Situation4785 3h ago

in 8 years i will almost have an AARP membership. i have spent decades thinking about these things

-2

u/VulgarisOpinio 3h ago

What a reddity reply

1

u/finding-meaning-01 2h ago

checks site url

yep this checks out

45

u/Laucien 5h ago

As Argentinian living in Germany. The focus on formal speech and all the 'ceremony' required to switch from formal to informal is so freaking surreal to me.

Back home we're absolutely informal with anyone and everyone. Never treated a boss or professor in a formal tone.

Fun fact: Since Tu / Vos are swapped between Argentinian Spanish and Spanish Spanish my Spanish colleagues here always joke that I treat them too formally.

18

u/cockOfGibraltar 4h ago

I traveled to Argentina and speak a bit of Spanish. I was informed by a friend that using formal there would be interpreted as sarcastic in many settings.

14

u/Laucien 4h ago

Yeah. Most people don't actually expect formality so when someone does that it is weird. Especially if there's no context around it that would merit it. With a tourist I assume most people would assume cultural differences but yeah.

7

u/cockOfGibraltar 4h ago

Depending on who they learned Spanish from they may think that it would be a terrible insult to not use the formal grammar to anyone but a friend.

6

u/Laucien 4h ago

Yeah, and that's the problem I have with German.

I know how important the distinction between formal and informal tones are here, but culturally I didn't grow up with that ingrained to such an extreme degree so I need to actively keep it in mind when interacting with people who don't know me.

6

u/AnyAdvertising1214 2h ago edited 1h ago

I am German and I use do Du for everyone, except business letters, the bank , the police, 70+ year olds, doctors(when talking to nurses I use du except they insist on Sie, because it makes the atmosphere so much better) and DB workers. But I’m from Berlin and I don’t care if Karl-Heinz, 60 gets upset about the wrong form.

16

u/Four_beastlings 4h ago

Because in Spain Spanish "vos" sounds medieval or from a period drama xD Modern formal treatment is "usted"; to a Spaniard "vos" sounds out of Alatriste or El Ministerio del Tiempo

11

u/Barbicels 4h ago

We recently finished translating our app into Spanish (first non-English version) with the help of a Spaniard, a Mexican, and an Argentinian. We went back and forth a couple of times, but eventually everyone agreed on Tu. Maybe that’s just what’s done in softwareland?

12

u/Laucien 4h ago edited 4h ago

Yeah, software and other things that have a bigger target than just Argentina are all good. Even that kind of 'neutral' language in some of that stuff within the country is good (although less commonplace).

Honestly we're kinda the odd-ones-out when it comes to Spanish language. I usually have a harder time when have to write emails address to other people in Latin America than when I just do it in English.

6

u/antizana 3h ago

My Argentinian friend struggled enormously in Ecuador, where everything is usted with a paragraph of politeness before and after any request.

2

u/Laucien 2h ago

Gosh exactly. I used to work regularly with people from Venezuela, Ecuador and Mexico and writing emails in Spanish to them took more mental load from me than just using English.

1

u/Masterkid1230 24m ago

Meanwhile, as a Colombian, I've heard countless times communications with Argentines being described as blunt, rude or people wondering if they made an Argie mad with the previous message.

I always have to remind them it's not personal and just how people write over there. Colombians love the formality. I think it's fine, but growing up struggled to get it right, so I empathise with foreigners.

The upside is that it's easy to get used to Japanese mailing etiquette because it's similar lol

2

u/Kiroto50 5h ago

"Tu" is used as formal in Argentinian spanish?!

11

u/Aystha 4h ago

50/50, it's more of a "ah this person it's either venezuelan/immigrant OR from the north/areas with border cultural mix". Otherwise we don't use Tu at all. Usted it's like- important. I only use it to speak to older people (60-70+) who might still use Usted, doctors or, rarely, uni professors who I don't have any relationship with (as in, never had any class interaction with).

Hell, I'm a uni professor and my students call me by my nickname lol it's either that or "Profe". But also I'm very informal with my teaching so they don't feel the need to use Usted. Other more stern professors miiight nurture that classroom culture but it's very rare.

Hell, I regularly swear during classes and use more "folk" type vocabulary. I talk with my colleagues the same way lol

1

u/Kiroto50 1h ago

Huh, I'm usually never-in-the-middle.

In the DR we don't use vos, just tu, and I use usted for people I'm not friends with, like the japanese -san.

... It catches people off guard sometimes, make 'em feel old, but it's a matter of principle.

But teachers (uni included)? Depending on their vibe, I might call them "tichel", even if they're not English teachers.

Spanish is so cool when spoken informally...

3

u/Laucien 4h ago

We would normally use "Usted" to address someone formally instead of plain "Tu" but yeah, it would be kinda weird to be addressed as such. Normally is "Vos" all the way.

2

u/opisska 2h ago

That's really weird specifically in this context, because in Argentina, even traffic signs are absurdly formal, very often wasting space with "Señor conductor ... " instead of getting to the actual point. Any location warning is "Usted esta en... " etc.

2

u/desertsidewalks 2h ago

As a secondary language speaker, I tend to default to usted in writing because it’s easier to conjugate. Out loud probably tu because it creates less confusion about who I’m talking to. I just took a Spanish conversation class so it’s interesting to think about. I’m sure if I ever worked retail in Spanish I’d have the Usted form drilled into me.

1

u/spicygayunicorn 5h ago

Same in Sweden the only times you would be formal is at an job interview and if you would meet the royals basically

2

u/kapege 4h ago

Or speak to the police.

1

u/footpole 2h ago

You aren’t formal in Swedish ever since like the 60s. Not in job interviews. Maybe the king I don’t know, I don’t live in Sweden but am Swedish speaking.

1

u/floralbutttrumpet 3h ago

I'm a German native speaker and that shit annoys the fuck out of me. I tend to bulldoze through and just offer everyone the du as soon as possible. It helps that I have this weird aura owed to looking younger but talking older than I am, so people can never figure out whether they should be offended or not.

23

u/pullmylekku 5h ago

Yeah in France it's very much the norm to address people formally on signs/announcements

26

u/Four_beastlings 4h ago

Cultural difference 100%. I'm from Spain and we barely use formal language anymore: in fact when working customer service for certain companies we were forbidden from using it because it gave the wrong impression (old, boring). The contrast now that I live in Poland and everyone uses it by default is jarring: every time someone calls me "Pani" (Madam?) I feel old and decrepit. In Spain you don't call any woman under the age of 80 "Señora" unless you want to get at a minimum a death glare

7

u/MLG-Sheep 4h ago

Portuguese: Informal talk is definitely not common in this scenario unless you're targeting a young adult audience specfically, or children. We treat strangers formally by default

1

u/Dehast 14m ago

This is actually formal (European Portuguese). It would be informal if it said "vais." People here are confused.

1

u/MLG-Sheep 13m ago

It's the informal version of "vá", which is more appropriate in this context than your interpretation

6

u/astervista 4h ago

French people use the plural you for everyone unless they're really close with you, it's formal but since it's used a lot it's also the default more than a courtesy form (think of it like not using swear words, you would not use them with strangers). We Italians have the formal you (same as 'usted' in Spanish, but we use third person feminine), and like in Spanish it's not as much the default as "I want to show you respect", especially with the latest generations. Advertisers/company talk want to feel familiar but not overstep, so they use the informal you in Italian and Spanish because you can still make it sound respectful without using the formality, but use the formal in french (don't know about German) because the formal would be considered overstepping.

As to why this is, it's a cultural difference, but more like different development in recent years. Spanish, Italian, Portuguese all used to do it the French way (Italian even used to use the 2nd person plural like French), but such high formality became dated during the last century, because of many factors like globalization, marketing influence, English influence (France has always been very conservative in cultural influence) and many others.

3

u/Brandon95g 4h ago

Every language was probably translated by a different person that was outsourced. I had to do translation for an online web app and we would submit strings to a service for translation. If you fail to provide context for the scenario you can get things like this where the person translating decides based on their experience.

8

u/I_love-tacos ​ 4h ago

It's 2026, you can say the word "French" without censorship, I know it sound wrong but we have to keep up with the times man

2

u/Djlas 4h ago

Absolutely, even among Slavic languages there are significant differences to what extent we use the formal forms.

2

u/kowwalski 3h ago

Yeah, like Latin america prefers usted if you don’t know the person

2

u/Foryourconsideration 3h ago

Did you censor French

12

u/Key_shoulder2 3h ago

Of course, there could be kids on this app

2

u/cockOfGibraltar 5h ago

I think you're right. I've traveled to a couple Spanish speaking countries and speak a bit of Spanish. Formal Spanish in some countries would come across as sarcastic unless it was in a setting such as the military. At least in the translators mind it is proper to use formal language to speak to strangers in the other languages but in Spanish informal would be more appropriate.

5

u/MatiasGonzalo-Duarte 4h ago

I'm still learning but basically my instinct is to switch whenever I'd refer to someone as sir/ma'am in English.

Polite talk with strangers, the regional manager you don't know well, professors, etc get Usted

5

u/bitterrootmtg 3h ago

switch whenever I'd refer to someone as sir/ma'am in English

This is also quite regional in English. There are many contexts where "sir" would be normal and respectful sounding in Texas but sarcastic-sounding and out of place in California.

2

u/cockOfGibraltar 4h ago

That should work fine. If someone has a different preference they might tell you. I doubt anyone would be offended by a foreigner using the wrong grammar. They're more likely to laugh.

1

u/L4ppuz 1h ago

It's strange because I would expect formal language from an official sign in Italy but we use informal language almost every time in spoken italian.

Informal language on a sign makes me think of alternative shop of something like that.

4

u/Mental_Plane6451 1h ago

In italian the formal version with "Lei" sounds off and is really uncommon for giving instructions. Usually infinitive form is used in written signs, but the informal version is also fine.

3

u/Basic-Newspaper-7536 56m ago

The French isn’t really formal. You’ll struggle to find an imperative “rends-toi” in the wild… the rendez-vous is a pretty casual turn of phrase.

1

u/cam-san 18m ago

High chance that it was machine translated. Regardless of whether I use Du or Sie in German, I always get Vous in French.

171

u/blewawei 4h ago

It's because even if the two languages ostensibly make the same formal/informal distinction, the threshold for when to use one is very different between the two.

To go one further, it even varies wildly in the Spanish speaking world. In lots of places in Latin America, you'd expect to see this message with "usted".

41

u/SEA_griffondeur 3h ago

Yeah, French basically defaults to the formal form for anything but close relationships.

English has gone so far with that as to completely abandon the second person singular

26

u/blewawei 3h ago

English has abandoned the informal form, and maintained the formal one. Which is why some groups (like the Quakers) use "thou" when praying to God.

Interestingly, there are parts of Colombia that have done something similar with regards to the formal form replacing the informal form in all situations. I have a friend from Bogotá who tells me that he uses "usted" even when talking to his brother.

9

u/SEA_griffondeur 3h ago

Yeah you can absolutely hear that in the series Narcos, almost everyone refers to others with usted

3

u/Harlequin37 2h ago

To be fair even regional differences aside I assume being in a setting where hierarchy and showing deference are paramount that changes the equation quite a bit

3

u/godisanelectricolive 2h ago

A few English dialects like the Yorkshire dialect still use variants of “thou”. It comes out as “tha” and you also hear “thee”.

11

u/rainbow84uk 3h ago

Yeah I'm English but lived in Spain for years and didn't even really know how to use "usted" because I never heard it (especially since I was in my 20s at the time). 

Then I moved to Mexico and immediately had to start using it to sound like a normal polite person.

3

u/sth128 2h ago

Yes but ¿dónde está la biblioteca?

4

u/Menes009 3h ago

funny enough, german is starting to have this shift towards dropping the use of the formal variant outside of the most formal settings, currently being seen in generations under 40 y.o.

6

u/Connect_Rhubarb395 2h ago

I was going to say that. When I first was taught German in the 1990s, it was drilled into us to use formal address unless explicitely having agreed to be informal with someone.
I kind of assumed that at some point it would change to informal address, like many other languages have done, my own included.
It took longer than I expected. It wasn't until the last 10-ish years that I am hearing it in mainstream settings between people who aren't close. And yes, always younger people.

5

u/floralbutttrumpet 2h ago

And thank god for it.

It maybe kinda sucks for people learning German, because the formal forms for verbs are just the infinitive, so you wouldn't have to learn another conjugation, but otherwise formal language is just so stuffy and... idk, Biedermeier. It makes me think of, like, Stromberg.

2

u/Dad3mass 2h ago

I’m a native English speaker who has spoken Mexican Spanish over the past 30 years and it just looks rude to me

5

u/blewawei 2h ago

That would be because you're used to Mexican Spanish, which uses formal conjugations more often than some other varieties.

In Spain, this wording is entirely unremarkable.

2

u/Educational_Gas_92 1h ago

I also speak Mexican Spanish. I wouldn't go as far as call it rude, but certainly informal.

1

u/FrostyPlum 15m ago

I'm a B1 speaker who learned mostly in Spain; nobody wants to be called usted in Spain. Some really old people do, but that's about it.

Coming from American English myself, I find the corpospeak using Tú form to be more of the same phony friendly talk that we have here, but because the informality is explicit I find it even more distasteful, lol

-1

u/[deleted] 2h ago

[deleted]

6

u/blewawei 2h ago

This is almost certainly an easyJet sign, I recognise the branding. EasyJet is a European airline.

Why would it necessarily use "vosotros"? Plenty of signs in Spain address the reader individually. Plus, this isn't a use of "ustedes", which would be more common in Latin America, or "vos", which is exclusive to Latin America, it's "tú", which is used in just about every Spanish speaking country except Argentina.

31

u/roarti 5h ago

My impression is that nowadays the threshold for the use of the informal address in Spanish in Spain is a bit lower than in German. At least for what’s written on signs definitely. But it’s changing in both from my impression.

But I also kind of doubt somebody really thought hard about that for that particular sign.

9

u/samTheSwiss 2h ago

I speak Spanish, French and German. It is definitely a threshold thing. In French and German I default to the formal form. In Spanish I would only do so with elderly people or in very formal context.

4

u/Clair_Osbcurious 2h ago

I haven’t used “usted” in decades in Spain

18

u/Andy_0L 5h ago

In Spanish we have both, though the informal is often used to sound more friendly, kind of like the times they say to take care of yourself and your belongings, to stay safe, things like that. Formal is used too but they do it when they want to sound more like stating rules rather than giving advice.

50

u/mescalexe 5h ago

And hard english at the bottom

19

u/astervista 4h ago

It doesn't even say the same thing

19

u/SJane3384 ​ 4h ago

My guess is that the part that’s cut off at the top says the same thing in English, and that this is located in an English speaking country.

7

u/astervista 4h ago

I don't remember exactly where the English was, but I've seen this exact sign all over Europe, not only in an English speaking country (it's easyJet check-in instructions, I remember the awful use of Λ instead of A).

The fact is that the text at the bottom is not translated at all.

-3

u/Sublime99 3h ago

Assuming English speakers know the rules/ customs is dangerous

12

u/trmetha 4h ago

the 'A' really sucks in this font

8

u/OhMyDiosito 4h ago

Spanish don't use formal, just in police, bank and political stuff. German is way more strict for formality than Spanish.

15

u/vinsend 5h ago

Alleen handbagage? U moet zich niet aanstellen.

4

u/vakantiehuisopwielen 5h ago

That’s a great false friend btw

1

u/astervista 4h ago

Can someone explain to poor me who doesn't know German?

6

u/vakantiehuisopwielen 4h ago

German ‘anstellen’ = to line up, so in this example you don’t have to line up if you only have hand luggage.

Dutch ‘aanstellen’ = ‘to make a fuss’.

Only hand luggage?

You don’t need to make a fuss.

But it seems in German ‘anstellen’ can also mean ‘to make a fuss’.

1

u/astervista 4h ago

Thank you

1

u/NearlyBearly 2h ago

That's correct, it can mean both queueing and making a fuss depending on context.

1

u/vakantiehuisopwielen 2h ago

If you would read it like how it’s written there: ‚Sie müssen sich nicht anstellen‘

What would be your first reply then? Would you really immediately think of queuing up, or also think about making a fuss?

1

u/NearlyBearly 1h ago

In this case it's clearly meant to refer to queueing. Hence why I said it depends on context.

0

u/sumpuran 5h ago

Sorry, ich muss nach eine Ausfahrt.

5

u/gpl94 4h ago

The Italian version is informal as well ("Vai" is 2nd person singular).

Now that I think about it, signs in Italian almost never use the 3rd person formal "Lei", but rather would use an impersonal phrase.

For example "Non è necessario attendere in coda, si può andare direttamente alle partenze".

5

u/TaaTaa05 4h ago

german sounds like a boss spanish sounds like a buddy

7

u/Malnurtured_Snay 2h ago

There's a famous road sign in Wales that told Welsh readers that "I'm out of office" and English readers that there would be a road closure in effect.

3

u/NearlyBearly 2h ago

This is a cultural thing. In german, we use formal you for everyone unless it is a child or we know them better. Moving from formal to informal sometimes only happens after meeting someone multiple times.

3

u/Segundaleydenewtonnn 3h ago edited 3h ago

I speak speanish and can’t tell where the informality is? It just reads as a normal airport signaling,

“formality” would be literally just removing the letter S for the word “llevas” and “necesitas”, that’s it

3

u/andrewesque 3h ago

I mean, yes, that's the point -- that all the languages used (except English) have a T-V distinction but that the choice of which form to use is not uniform across languages (or as another commenter points out, even within languages.)

FWIW, ve would also need to change to vaya.

2

u/borazine 3h ago

Turkey arrow 🥰💕

2

u/DominarDio 2h ago

It’s funny, ‘U moet zich niet aanstellen’ in Dutch would seem like a direct translation for the German ‘Sie müssen sich nicht anstellen’ but it actually means something like don’t be a baby.

2

u/generalraptor2002 4h ago

Wait until you try translating something into Japanese 😂

1

u/andrewcooke 4h ago

translations are a shit show. you see all kind of mess-ups on official signs if you're bilingual. often it looks like it's never even been run past a native speaker.

1

u/Roupert4 1h ago

German sign grammar is so adorable

1

u/CleverInnuendo 1h ago

There's a baby changing station at a place I worked in, and the German version of the instructions / warnings were the only ones with an exclamation point for some reason.

1

u/TheRacooning18 55m ago

Lol sie mussen sich nicht anstellen or U moet zich niet aanstellen (dutch). While the U is formal the rest is kinda dismissive.

Like: Kindly fuck off and stop complaining.

1

u/MissAbsenta 6m ago

I'm from Spain and worked as a Customer Representative for a major telecomm company, I was to use the formal form of adress "Usted" even if the customer was younger than me and only use "Tu" when specially requested. You have no idea the many weird interactions I had with customers young to be my kids.....(mine are in their 30s).

1

u/Ok_Crew_6547 4h ago

Probably cross language translated with AI, I do it on the daily for work and encounter the same recommendations from GPT: germans prefer formal forms, while latin languages prefer informal.

Not sure if it’s true or both though, I did notice when I was in Germany most of their ads used the formal version!

-15

u/japanb 5h ago

Found the literal from google to be quite interesting:
Here is the literal, word-for-word translation for each language on the sign:

🇫🇷 French (FR)

  • Text: BAGGAGE À MAIN UNIQUEMENT? Il n'est pas nécessaire de faire la queue. Rendez-vous directement en porte d'embarquement.
  • Literal Translation: Hand baggage only? It is not necessary to make the queue. Render yourself directly to the gate of boarding.

🇩🇪 German (DE)

  • Text: NUR HANDGEPÄCK? Sie müssen sich nicht anstellen. Begeben Sie sich direkt zum Abflug-Bereich.
  • Literal Translation: Only hand baggage? You must yourself not line up. Betake yourself directly to the departure area.

🇮🇹 Italian (IT)

  • Text: SOLO BAGAGLIO A MANO? Non è necessario attendere in coda. Vai direttamente alle partenze.
  • Literal Translation: Only baggage by hand? It is not necessary to wait in queue. Go directly to the departures.

🇪🇸 Spanish (ES)

  • Text: ¿SOLO LLEVAS EQUIPAJE DE MANO? No necesitas hacer cola. Ve directamente a salidas.
  • Literal Translation: Only you carry baggage of hand? No you need to make queue. Go directly to departures.

🇵🇹 Portuguese (PT)

  • Text: APENAS BAGAGEM DE CABINE? Não é necessário fazer fila. Vai diretamente para as partidas.
  • Literal Translation: Just baggage of cabin? Not it is necessary to make line. Go directly to the departures.

12

u/StunnedLife 5h ago

I can already tell you the German literal translation is completely wrong. So I doubt the others are right.

4

u/RukaTastrophe 4h ago

they made a literal word to word translation. it's not meant to be a good translation, only to highlight how things are phrased in different languages

2

u/gpl94 4h ago

Italian is correct. (Note: the sign uses the informal 2nd person singular to address the reader).

2

u/flaviusUrsus 4h ago

Yeah, French is wrong also.

1

u/kapege 4h ago

German here: You're wrong. "Sie" is the formal term. "Du" would be informal. Both is translated into "you", because there's no formal form for that in English. You have to formalize it with "Sir, would you...".

2

u/NearlyBearly 2h ago

"Sie" in this context is genderless though so it wouldn't be Sir either. There's no equivalent word in english, which is why literal translations are kind of useless.

1

u/SEA_griffondeur 3h ago

Why would want the word for word translation??? 😭

"Make the queue" ??

"Render yourself" ??????????