Sie schreiben (they or you?)

Question

I have the following sentence:

Sie schreiben uns ein Buch

Which is similar to the following:

Du schreibst uns ein Buch

What happens if I want to write "They are writing us a book" ? won't it be:

Sie schreiben uns ein Buch?

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 28 '14 at 20:08

2

Yes. Polite you and third person plural cannot be distinguished except by context and mid sentence capital "Sie".

answered Mar 28 '14 at 20:08

Emanuel

avm · Answer 2 · 2014-03-28T20:24:59.330

0

It would be:

Schreiben sie uns ein Buch?

Note that sie begins with lowercase s, which denotes the plural form.

Remember that in order to ask questions involving actions in German you always have to begin with the verb.

edited Mar 28 '14 at 20:24

answered Mar 28 '14 at 20:18

avm

1

Mh, actually the OP doesn't aim at analyzing an interrogative sentence. That question mark is associated to the whole question iteself. While your statement is not wrong, you're not adressing the question. – c.p. Mar 28 '14 at 20:27
I'm sorry, but I'm not familiar with the term "OP". If you would tell me what it means, then perhaps I could understand your commentary. – avm Mar 28 '14 at 20:31
Kein Problem, that stands for Original Post(er), so here, I'm referring to "Inter Sys"; meaning that that "Inter Sys didn't try to analyze an interrogative sentece, and the ? belongs to the whole question" – c.p. Mar 28 '14 at 21:48

2 Answers2