Lately I have been reading German novels in translation and I have noticed a  clunking of gears when the translator has to describe the moment the characters decide to "du" each other. My question is what does the German translator of an English novel do to overcome the fact that  English now only has "you" Does "sie" become "du" seamlessly at the translator's discretion or is there some equally awkward moment for the German reader reading an English novel in translation? ( Yes I do realize this is a very,very basic question but a monoglot ignoramous would be grateful for an answer.) Thanks.

 Thanks t-p. What puzzles me a little is that the change from the formal to the intimate seems to be to an occasion of real significance so, since there is no such moment in English relationships does the translator "seamlessly" change the mode of address or interpose a formal introduction to the change since the moment is, in the language of the translation, of such importance to the characters?

Native speaker will always understand that not native speakers make mistakes. They will not take it personally.

First of all even native speak each other if they can call each other intimate you.

If they are characters in a play than they can change during the conversation. Say for example: the man and the woman is talking. He tells her that he loves her. She says she likes him too. He usually will change you from formal to intimate right away.

In conversation intimate you can change to a formal. For example: two people disagree. They change to formal you and are not friends. The disagreement has to be serious.


German people are more formal (I think, but I know only one German man closely and he is very nice).


I know nothing about French.


Otherwise if you are writing and think you are close to them still use formal. They will tell you if they are ready. This is my way of dealing with the problem. I am ok with formal you, though most Russians will change at the first opportunity.


Young people are use intimate you to each other from the start. So if he is telling her that he loves her, he doesn't have to change because they used intimate you anyway.

People of the same age often use intimate and with older people one uses formal you.

What is wrong with using formal you? After all I think English people use formal you. The other one was intimate. Is it?
Or is it all the way around?

The rules are the same in Russian.

Thank you pim_derks. You are much better at explaining things.

 Thanks Pim, what I'm trying to get at is how does a translator translating say "Pride and Prejudice" into German decide when Mr Darcy says "du" to Miss Bennet and, when the translator has chosen that moment, does he just change the pronoun or do the two characters, in German, have to go through the process of  asking can I /shall we "du"?  It may not be that formal with lovers but, I guess, two male characters, meeting as strangers at the start of a novel and best friends at the end of the book, would at sometime in the German translation have to go through the formal method of changing the form of address since not to do so would be very bad manners or just seem silly to a German reader. I was just interested in how it is done since with German into English the process often seems clumsy.   

This makes me think of the Schoenberg-Berg correspondence.
It struck me as really interesting how long it took for Berg to get to the stage where he could correspond with Schoenberg at the level of 'du'.
In translations I've read, 'du' (or its equivalent in other languages) has been translated as 'thou', but also I seem to remember that either DH Lawrance or Thomas Hardy (or both!) use 'thou' for a more intimate connection.
I was amused at Darmstadt to notice that a lot of native English speakers launched straight into 'du', even on first acquaintance. The recipients were generally amused as well, I hasten to add. It seemed to come over as quite charming.

I suspect that it's the difference between the grammar taught at school, and actual modern practice!
I was taught to be very careful, and that (for example) in a rehearsal situation, you should always use 'Sie' when addressing the musicians.

But terribly English/American to ignore those conventions entirely.
I made sure that I always used 'Sie' but considering the extreme awfulness of my German I'm not sure it was the element that really needed my focus...