Probably the first thing a beginner learns in class is the fact that there is no formal distinction between forms
YOU V English language. The English perfectly bypass with one, short pronoun
From this point on, the opinions of students usually differ - there are those who claim that the British rudely poke everyone, while others, on the contrary, believe that the British politely poke everyone
I have witnessed such quarrels more than once... And therefore, at least in my diary, I want to dot the T’s once and for all
in fact, in the English language earlier, until the 18th century, there was a form of address YOU -
Thou but since the end of the 18th century it has fallen out of use....
For example, in Sonnet 3, V. Shakespeare addresses his Friend as “you”:
Look in your glass, and tell the face
thou viewsest
Now is the time that face should form another;
Whose fresh repair if now
thou not renewest,
Thou dost beguile the world, unblessed some mother.
For where is she so fair whose unear"d womb
Disdains the tillage of your husbandry?
Or who is he so fond will be the tomb
Of his self-love, to stop posterity?
Thou art thy mother's glass, and she in
Calls back the lovely April of her prime:
thou through windows of thin age shall see
Despite wrinkles this thy golden time.
thou live, remember"d not to be,
Die single, and thin image dies with
the fact is that English, like any other, is constantly developing, changing grammatically, lexically, phonetically, etc. If the same Shakespeare were given a newspaper of our days, it is unlikely that he would read it easily. The British are an island nation and they are very strict about how they treat each other. in the end, you can’t just leave the island like a submarine... and therefore impoliteness and familiarity could turn into, to put it mildly, a ruined life. In addition, literary English is incomparably richer and more ancient than, for example, the Russian language. Therefore, it so happened that now the Englishman, addressing both the janitor and the queen equally to everyone, YOU - OUT.
Although many many years ago the British made a distinction between “you” and “you”. It looked like this:
Nominative singular case
Nominative case, plural.
Objective case, singular
Objective case, plural.
YOU was used to express respect and respect, especially towards officials and important people. The popularity of the plural forms YOU, one might say, has ruined pronouns singular- thou and thee (by the way, it is the pronoun thou that would correspond to the Russian you), since already by 1600. they acquired a touch of familiarity and soon fell out of use completely, surviving only in poetry and the Bible.
It is worth noting that in Russian the pronoun “you” appeared only in the 16th century.
And in Yakut, some citizens still believe that EVERYONE - both the president and the milkmaid - should be addressed in a simple, familiar manner
EN, although there is a form of address
EhIGI- more polite and respectful!
And since the history of the language continues and society is developing and becoming more complex, I personally find it very unpleasant when a person I don’t know well or who is below me on the social ladder suddenly addresses me on EN...
Actually WHO is he to me to treat me like that? If this is not my kindergarten friend or army buddy, then such rude, rustic treatment offends me! I myself use the EhIGI form when addressing all seniors and superiors, and I demand the same for myself!
Any person starting to study English, sees that the forms “you” and “you” are the same in it– this is you. The question arises: do the British really not distinguish between these “you” and “you”? But in fact, things have been this way in English for only three centuries. Previously, in this language, as in other European languages, there was a pronoun “you” thou. What happened, after which the British turned into the most polite people, completely eliminating this familiar “you”?
First, let's remember where this tradition came from - calling a person you? It turns out that it's all about the solemnity of the letter. Anyone who has read scientific monographs probably knows that they are presented in plural. For example: “as it seems to us... we believe... in our opinion.” In this case, the author is often one person. This tradition is more than two thousand years old. To make the style more solemn, this is exactly how Roman authors began to write (for example, Cicero and others).
But excuse me, what does this pompous style have to do with politely addressing “you”? The most direct: following the analogy “I” > “we”, we adopted “You” instead of “you”. This is how they began to address the emperor back in the 3rd century. new era, in order to emphasize his high position. And from the 5th century AD, such treatment in the Roman Empire in relation to superiors became widespread.
This is where the polite form of "you" in Romance languages comes from. This is how she got into, which subsequently exerted its exquisite influence on. The same influence changed the English thou"you're on you“You,” because the previous address began to be considered too rude. Then literary language gained a new and widespread appeal to “You”. And English has become the most polite language in Europe.
Interestingly, other Romance languages, besides French, are distinguished by their special forms of polite address. For example, Italian uses the pronoun Lei (“she”) to address “you.” The thing is that during the Middle Ages, someone who occupied a high position was addressed: “Your Grace.” Therefore, today Lei (“she”) is a substitute for such a noble combination in the Italian language. This also seems to be the case in German, where Sie has three meanings – “she”, “you” and “they”.
But in Spanish, this polite phrase was not replaced by the pronoun “she”, but was shortened in pronunciation. Until the 17th century they said Vuesa merced, which means “Your Grace.” Later this phrase was transformed into Vuesausted, and then it found modern look: Usted"You" (shortened to Ud and is written with a capital letter).
Be that as it may, the pronoun “you” has not been completely abolished in any of the Romance languages, so English is rightfully the most polite of all the languages of Europe.
Many of us are familiar with the situation when we don’t know how best to address our interlocutor: “you” or “you”. And then you will inevitably remember your English-speaking comrades. People are lucky, there is no torment of choice: only “you” and nothing else.
Probably, many came to read this article after a simple operation “I asked Yandex”, when they discovered that in English the pronoun “you” means both “you” and “you”. We are always itching. Is it really not possible to “poke” in English? It turns out not. But this was not always the case.
Until the 16th century in England there was a word “thou”, which just meant “you”. As evidence, we can take, for example, the works of Shakespeare: there the heroes “poke” with might and main. And then politeness killed the British. To emphasize their respect for high-ranking people, they began to call them in the plural. As a result, “we, Nicholas II” successfully supplanted “heartfelt you”. Since then, translators have been lying awake at night, burning themselves with hot coffee, trying to decide when English-speaking heroes have already moved to the “you” stage, and when they still express their respect with “you”.
It's funny that in the Slavic territory of the former CIS everything happened exactly the opposite. We are rushing ahead of the rest of the planet, so the word “you” appeared only in the 16th century. It’s no different than our travelers who visited the hillocks-oceans and followed the example. But it was possible to address the prince on a first name basis.
However, you shouldn’t think that when addressing a British/American it’s enough to say “you” and not worry. Their system of address is so sophisticated that it would be better if “thou” were still preserved. In our store, you can say to a saleswoman of considerable age, “Girl, please weigh 200 g of sausage,” and receive from the beaming woman a kilogram of cervelat, on which a phone number will be scribbled. And in the UK and the USA, no “girl” will give you a ride if you want to get an extra towel from the maid at the hotel.
So, what did the English-speaking comrades get up to in their appeals to different people?
1 The most universal appeals: Sir(to the man) and Madam(to the woman). Be sure to capitalize it. You are especially at risk if you write “madam”, because this is how they designate the mistress of a brothel. In the USA, with their love of simplification, the word “Madam” was generally shortened to “ma’am”.
Sir and Madam can be translated as “Mister” and “Madam”. These expressions are boldly inserted into official letters and used in Everyday life when the interlocutor wants to emphasize his respectful attitude. For example, if you look into a store, then Sir/Madam will certainly contact you.
Small but important nuance: after these addresses you CANNOT put a surname. To do this you need to use option number 2.
2 Mr(Mr., to the man), Mrs(Mrs., to a married woman) and Miss(miss, to an unmarried woman, girl, girl). Here, however, English-speaking women were again not pleased: I wouldn’t be happy about such attention, after all, already 2 different ways contact the distinguished lady. But feminism is sweeping the planet, huts are burning, horses are running, so women wanted equal rights with men and demanded a unified appeal: Ms. (Miz). The UN kindly recommended the use of this form back in 1974. However, most women are not part of the narrow circle of celibate feminists and do not see anything wrong with emphasizing their married status with the help of Mrs.
Important note: all these Mr/Mrs/Miss/Ms can only be used with a first name, last name and some positions. For example, Mr. DJ, Miss Universe, Mrs. Swarovski, Ms. Brown.
True, there are the usual exceptions here. For example, students simply address their teacher as “Miss” in the UK. For this we must thank Queen Victoria, because in her time only an unmarried woman could work as a teacher (I wonder why). By the way, for the same reason, if British students add a surname to the word “Miss” when addressing their dear teacher, then only a maiden one. In the USA they don’t suffer from such wisdom and calmly say “Mrs Smith” (married name).
P.S.: in official letters you can still find mysterious things Esq . , which is placed after the name. For example, Jack M. Stone Esq. This is nothing more than an analogue of Mr. Deciphered esquire(Esq). He is never an employee of the magazine of the same name. And not even a squire, as it used to be in medieval England. Esquire was now equal in meaning to the word "gentleman." However, in the USA, for some reason, this addition to the first and last name has taken root with certified lawyers. In general, by and large, it’s better not to mess around with Esquires. Mr - and that's it.
3 Ladies and Gentlemen! Ladies and Gentlemen! This is a polite form of addressing several people at once. Again, contrary to all logic. Why not respected “sirs” and “madams”, but rather “ladies” and “gentlemen”? Let's leave this to the conscience of the mysterious islanders; after all, they have a lot of rain there, and they had to come up with entertainment.
4 Adults do not have to stand on ceremony and address unfamiliar young men and women using Sir / Madam / Ms / Mr. So it's simple: youth / young man(young man) or young lady / young woman(young woman). Almost like ours.
5 Elderly people, when addressing young people, allow affectionate addresses: Dear! Dearie! Ducky! Love!(daughter); Son! Sonny! Boy!(son).
6
The most interesting: colloquial forms of address: friend(friend) ; pal
/
mate
/
buddy
chum(buddy). This way you can turn not only to your bosom friend, but also to a stranger who does not deserve any respect from you (well, for example, someone showed up at your girlfriend’s house while you were honestly working on a business trip. How can you not say: “Hey , you, chum, get out!” It’s funny that you still have to address it as “you”).
Old man/boy/chap! (old man, buddy) Old girl/sister! (old lady, sister) Brother! Buddy! Mate!(brother)
7 Probably, the film “Don’t Call Me Baby” would not have been released at all if the screenwriter had remembered many other affectionate forms of address. For example, in addition to the notorious baby(baby, baby) it’s quite possible to take a synonym kid. And if you don’t want to go back to childhood, then you can add some honey: honey , sweet(sweet,-ii). Or more banal: dear girl / boy(dear girl/boy). Or you can do it with all the breadth of your soul: love , sweetheart, angel , precious . Let it melt.
8 Appeals to high-ranking persons (what if this is useful?)
Your Majesty(Your Majesty)
Your Highness(Your Highness). When addressing a prince/princess or duke/duchess.
Your Lordship(Your Mightiness). When addressing a lord or judge of the Supreme Court.
Your Honor(Your Honor). When appealing to a lower court judge.
9 As a bonus: like us, taxi drivers can easily ask “where are we going, boss?” Only their boss will sound “chief”.
Military personnel should be addressed by rank.
To the valiant policemen - officer, constable, inspector.
To those who took the oath of Hippocrates - Dr+
surname, Doctor (
doctor), Nurse/Matron/Sister (
nurse).
Now you have a whole set in your arsenal for addressing English-speaking comrades. By the way, you will find the word “comrade” (comrade) only in communist / socialist parties, as well as in Soviet textbooks in English language. In other cases, “comrad Ivanov” is not used. The same thing about “citizen” (citizen) - this is our Soviet invention, and in the world it has taken root only in translations of works from Russian into English. Instead of any “Comrade Sergeant, two hours before dawn” you will have to say simply officer, and instead of Comrade Petrov / Sidorov - Mr Petr ov / Si dorov .
All that remains is to arm yourself with this knowledge and use it in practice. For example, write a letter to the remaining Prince Harry. After all, why are you worse than Kate Middleton? :)
especially for
Hi all! The United States is a country of enormous human potential and limitless offerings. Therefore, every year millions of foreigners visit America for various purposes: to get rich, to study, to have fun, to find the American dream, etc. But whatever goal you pursue, knowledge of spoken American language is simply necessary. And a series of audio lessons “That’s what they say in America” or “English USA” will help you learn spoken American English.
The question “Where are you from?” and the answer to it in EnglishOne of the most popular questions you will hear upon arrival in the USA is the phrase “ Where are you from?" or " Where are you from?" Therefore, in our field of vision today the question “ Where are you from?"and possible answers to it. In addition to the new expressions of this lesson, we will remember and repeat the vocabulary of previous lessons in order to consolidate the learned words and phrases in English.
Today's conversation is an interview that Martin Lerner conducts with a student from Poland, Stefan Nowak. You will study a fragment in which a Voice of America employee asks a Polish student where he is from and where he lives in this moment. Martin and Stefan are talking in a restaurant, the waiter, having heard their dialogue, also joins in the conversation:
Martin: Where are you from? - Where will you be from?
Stephan: I am from Poland. - I am from Poland.
Martin: What city are you from? - And from what city?
Stephan:I am from Cracow. — From Krakow.
Martin: Where do you live now? - Where do you live now?
Stefan:I live in Baltimore now. — I currently live in Baltimore. (Florida)
Waitress: I lived in Florida last year - I lived in Florida last year. (Waitress)
Remember also the online lesson Learning to thank and say goodbye
Read the dialogue several times and then listen to the voiceover. In addition to the conversation between Martin and Stefan, you will also hear how to correctly pronounce all the vocabulary in this online lesson:
/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/russian_english_007.mp3Follow the speaker's instructions step by step to make the learning process as simple and effective as possible. When listening to how ordinary Americans pronounce words, repeat all the phrases after them to practice pronunciation.
Where are you from? - in English
Use this handy chart to learn common American English phrases, as well as nouns, verbs, prepositions, and other useful words and expressions that relate directly to the lesson topic.
| Where are you from? | |
| Phrases | |
| Call me..., call me... | Call me... |
| Let's… | Let's... |
| Let's listen | Let's listen |
| She said… | She said... |
| Have a seat | Sit down |
| Verbs | |
| live | live |
| Lived | lived |
| tape | record |
| work | work |
| worked/worked | worked |
| study, study | study |
| spell | spell |
| sit | sit |
| write | write |
| Nouns | |
| city/cities | city/cities |
| Waiter | waitwer |
| waitress | waitress |
| office, institution, study | office |
| museum | museum |
| record player | tape recorder |
| student | student |
| director | director |
| coffee | coffee |
| cups of coffee | coffees |
| river | river |
| hospital | hospital |
| management of medical institutions | health administration |
| music | music |
| musician | musician |
| university | university |
| Prepositions | |
| from | from |
| Where are you from? | Where are you from? |
| What city are you from? | What city are you from? |
Although the table seems large in volume, it is actually very easy to learn, since you already know most of the lexemes. Therefore, be patient and start memorizing words and phrases in English from the table.
Remember also the interesting article
Is there a English pronoun"You"?
MAKHLIN P.Y.
Anyone who begins to learn English notices that the forms “you” and “you” are the same in English:you. What does it mean? Don't the English differentiate between "you" and "you"? In fact, this state of affairs has only been in the English language for 3 centuries; before, English, like other European languages, had its own special pronoun “you”thou. How did it happen that for many centuries the English have become the most polite people and do not allow the familiar “you”?
Where did this tradition of calling a respected (older) person come from? And everything is very simple: it turns out that the reason for the emergence of such appeals is the solemnity of the letter. Anyone who has come across scientific monographs has probably noticed that they are always written in the plural: “as it seems to us... in our opinion... we believe...”. Although the author may be one person. This tradition is more than two thousand years old. To make the style even more solemn, Roman authors wrote exactly this way, referring to themselves in the plural. This is what Cicero and many others wrote, for example.
How do you say this pompous style relates to the polite “you”? And the most immediate thing: by analogy, “I” > “we” began to be used instead of “you” - “You”. Thus, since III centuries of the new era began to turn to the emperor - to emphasize the importance of his position. And already with V century new era, calling “you” to superiors became ubiquitous in the Roman Empire.
From here “you” as a polite form was borrowed into Romance languages. And among them in French, wherevous“you” also means a polite address. Probably also in Russian You received such significance under refined French influence. It was this influence that led to the fact that in English with VXII century thou “you” began to be considered too rude and began to be used in literary English you both in the meaning of “you” and “you”. This is how English became the most polite language in Europe.
Interestingly, other Romance languages besides French have developed special forms polite treatment. So in Italian “you” is expressed by the pronoun Lei ( literally: “she”). The fact is that in the Middle Ages there was a special appeal to a person who occupied morehigh position:Vostra Signoria"Your Grace." Lei (“she”) and replaces such a noble combination in modern Italian. Apparently, a similar situation is in German, WhereSiemeans “she” and “you” and “they”.
And in Spanish, such a polite phrase has not been replaced by the pronoun “she,” but has been greatly reduced in pronunciation. Before XVII centuries in Spanish they said so Vuesa merced"Your Grace." Subsequently, this phrase was first shortened toVuesausted and finally took on the form of modern Spanish yka: Usted"You".
But, be that as it may, none of the Romance languages went so far as to completely abolish the pronoun “you,” so English rightfully became the most polite language in Europe.