Not really. Junker is a variation of Jungherr which is a contraction of "junger Herr" in the sense of "young Lord" (heir to the title of Freiherr = Baron), not little man. That would be Männlein - as in the children song "Ein Männlein steht im Walde"
As someone born in 1997 I'll say that I've never used "Fräulein" in a serious situation. The only phrases that somewhat comes close to this, in modern usage, is: "Entschuldigen Sie bitte, die Dame" to address someone female, who is not paying attention to you. (Translation: Excuse me please, Madam). Though same phrase can be used with men ("Entschuldigen Sie, der Herr" / Excuse me please, Sir). Note: Even "Dame" in German is a bit antiquated here, but a reasonable indicator for serious politeness. // these just reflect my experiences here in Saxony, Leipzig - other parts of Germany may vary
@@nezahualcoyotl1135 I think that is the case everywhere, no matter how old the woman is. It sounds very reprehensive and sulky. I would never ever use it. I would say something like: "Entschuldigung, dürfte ich kurz um Ihre Aufmerksamkeit bitten?"
Dame is old fanished but in somesituations ok. Like women standing in the way in ther Supermarket. A loud 'tschuldigung die Damen may help to get them out of the way. But in nowe days you are never sure wich gender the other prefer so better not use dame or herr oh an never use dame on women under the age of 40... makes them feel old
@@redzora80 Ich bin 54 und möchte auch nicht mit Dame angesprochen werden. Und das hat nichts mit dem Alter zu tun. Ja - bis in die 50/60er Jahren war es einfach nur höflich es zu verwenden, aber heute schwingt da meiner Meinung nach so ein leicht arroganter oder genervter Unterton mit.
Awesome. I met somebody from Argentina who's currently beginning to learn German. I'll forward your excellent explanations to them. Please keep them coming!
He can do this for the rest of eternity :D Like any language German has a (metric) ton of loopholes, exceptions, pitfalls and all the other good stuff :D
Being a german I really never thought someone would come to the idea to use this word in any situation unless he or she uses a conversation guide from the 50s.
I do not know why it was discontinued. It was a useful word. In English we have the word Miss, and Missus. Ms. and Mrs., respectfully. These are used to distinguish between the marital status of women. There is not officially one to distinguish between the marital status of men. That being said you would generally use sir for someone that is unmarried, or presumably unmarried, and mister (Mr.) for someone that is married or presumed to be married.
@@leviturner3265 It was discontinued because it literally doesn't make sense to distinguish between unmarried women and married women but not between unmarried men and married men.
@@disobedientdolphin In a practical sense it does make sense. Almost always the male is the one that will pursue the female. If he knows she is married, he can look elsewhere.
This has actually been one of the finer videos of lately. I felt like the humor was a bit forced in some of the other videos, but this one felt like it had some good jokes in it. Thumbs up for this one! Hoping to see more of the subtle humor in the future. :)
Very well explained! Those ways of adressing waiters were very accurate! :D I've been learning Icelandic for a couple of years and it appears as if pretty much the same thing has happened to the term Ungfrú, literally young woman. When I first saw this word, I thought it might also mean virgin because of its similarity to the German term Jungfrau, but that doesn't seem to be the case.
That's the beauty of living languages. Perhaps the word meant 'Jungfrau' once - or some precursor word was used by both. But over the generations the meaning shifted slowly - creating two similar but distinct words :D
well it is related. very long time ago a young unmarried woman was called jungfrau in german. in the middle ages Frau und Fräulein meant as much as Lady and young lady and were only ment for noble woman. a married woman was refered to as weib (which is related to the english wife) and a young unmarried woman was refered to as jungfrau though i am not sure if the were also adressed as such.
@@blackforest_fairy the old time word for unmarried noble women where Jungfer . Like alte Jungfer wich would be spinnster in english. Wich of course indicates that they are virgin (jungfrau). because as a women in that time beeing not a virgin at the day you married, lowers the price or is damaged good. so no matter wich way. It dosent fit in modern times
@@redzora80 Jungfer is just a informal almost offensive form of Jungfrau.(just as the alte Jungfer you mentioned is offensive). In the formal way it was Jungfrau.
@@blackforest_fairy In movies related to middle ages, castles, knights and ladies they often use "Jungfer XY" when talking about a person. Why do they use Jungfer, not Jungfrau?
I studied German in high school back in the 1980's. Didn't learn it very well and forgot it for decades until I decided to re-learn it and continue learning it two years ago. I noticed right away Fräulein was no longer being used in German for the same reason we don't use Miss in the US anymore (or aren't supposed to).
1:39 in the video he sounds as if there never was something similar in English. the distinction between _Ms_ and _Mrs_ when writing a letter to a woman was still in use much later than the 1972 change in offical German
I also like the regional diminutives. Every Dialect seems to have their own. Here in Swabia it's "-le", in Bavaria it's "-el", the Swiss Germans use "-li" and in the north they use "-ling" apparently. So for example the English word 'muesli' comes from German "Müsli". "Mus" means something like 'mush, puree', so "Müsli" is Swiss German for 'little puree'. The Name of the Swabian dish of "Spätzle" means something like 'little sparrows' ("Spatz"='sparrow') and is sometimes associated with the legend of the sparrow of Ulm. (although the names origin might not be related to sparrows at all).
The Swiss and otherwise alemanic dimunitiv is not meant so much about making things smaller or dearer but to get rid of genders. Dimunitives are always neutral, whether lein, le, li, erl, chen. In fact it is DAS Mädchen. In the dialect of my wife men and very young female are referred to as "es" it. Sie is reserved for women in a postion of respect, e.g. mothers grannies aunts. Daddy might still be "es". Probaby a matriarchical society. Also mothers are address in the honorific "ihr" daddies as Du. Going up north the western german speaking border gramamtical gender is more and more depreciated to end up with Dutch where it is substantially gone. In fact in Swiss the dimunitive does not sound kinder in the ears of the locals but only in the ears of Germans
@@HelmutQ We still have them in the lowlands! It is just that masculine and feminine are mostly indistinguishable in their grammatical use in Dutch, unless you refer to the word and have to come up with "hij" or "zij". Most people would need a dictionary to know which one it should be. Then of course we have the neutral words where "the" becomes "het", which has its own grammar rules. Also, same as in German, all words with a diminiutive ending turn neutral, for example "het meisje" (the girl).
@@HelmutQ I didn't understand this dialect way of avoiding gender at first, but actually it's a great help if you're not a native speaker, and confused by der, die, das... btw in Franken it's -la, eg Faessla, a barrel.
G'day, hypatian! I'm learning some German words for things I buy at the shops and recently, I bought an electric can opener. When I Googled the German word for "can opener", it came up "Dosenöffner".
I felt very angry and offended as a child or teenager, when I received post from my local bank and they adressed me always as "Fräulein"(they regulary invited me to bring my money to my children bank account and get small presents and a comic) That was in the 80s and early 90s. I always told my mom, that I'm not a Fräulein, I'm a Frau, I'm not less just because I'm young or not married. If there would have been a male counterpart "Herrlein" I wouldn't have been so offended. My mom was always like:"Oh no, you aren't a real woman yet, you are still a child." This was making me even more angry. The bank stopped using this and adressed me as Frau on my 18th birthday, I think. Today no female child is adressed with this any more. As a foreigner you also should know "Fräulein" is also used by parents or family to adress you, when you have done something bad. To let you know:"Oh no, I'm really in trouble" For example:"FRÄULEIN Müller, komm sofort hier her!" means:"MISS Miller, come here immediately" Using this word today have still this feeling of being scold or of talking down on you.
I think whether "Fräulein" is still acceptable will vary very much depending on where you use it, and how old you are. No-one is going to correct (or mind) grandpa in his local village pub calling a waitress that. Expect a good bit of backlash when used by a mid-twenty-something in a hip vegan café in Berlin. I've definitely heard it being used many times, but, yes, basically, just don't use it anymore.
♫ Ein Männlein steht im Walde Ganz still und stumm, Es hat von lauter Purpur Ein Mäntlein um. Sagt, wer mag das Männlein sein, Das da steht im Wald’ allein Mit dem purpurrothen Mäntelein? ♫ ♫ Das Männlein steht im Walde Auf Einem Bein Und hat auf seinem Haupte Schwarz Käpplein klein. Sagt, wer mag das Männlein sein, Das da steht im Wald’ allein Mit dem kleinen schwarzen Käppelein? ♫
Und damit erschöpft sich auch der Gebrauch von Männlein. Allerhöchstens noch als liebevolle Ansprache für den Sohnemann. Und damit it dann auch wirklich Schluß.
If you are sitting in a restaurant as an english speaking person, you can use the word "Fräulein" and noone will harm you for that. Women working as a waitress knows how you use that word and dont want to offend them.
In primary school in the 1980s our teacher (who initially was from another state) was really offended when someone called Herr Fräulein and even gave someone detention who kept doing it. First when another teacher explained her that this is how female teachers where traditionally addressed in the Palatinate, she relaxed a bit.
The general rule is that if vowel in the last syllable is a vowel that can become an Umlaut (a, o, u, au), it always becomes an Umlaut in the dimminutive form, regardless whether you use -chen or -lein as a suffix. Frauchen is one of the very few irregulars. I don't know the reason, but I suppose it's because that word was created relatively recently (late 19th or early 20th century) and was delibertely made to sound different from Fräulein, which was back then still in use. The word Frauchen is also odd for using the suffix -chen at all. Normally, words that end with a vowel are paired with -lein rather than -chen.
I've been to a cafe recently, where the waitress told me that "Fräulein" is actually still used by a surprising number of guests, even younger ones. But it is considered offensive by most, that's right. Apart from that, I wasn't aware that the plural of "das Männchen" is "die Weibchen" (3:57). Thanks, I learned something new today! ;)
Männchen can refer to some kind of.. little man. Like a small wooden toy in the shape of a man. Weibchen is really only used to denote the female sex in animals.
You are giving perfectly valid advice for a foreigner learning the language. However, while it maybe that Fräulein is out of date it is not offensive when used to call the waitress. Fräulein without name is not sexist in the pub just makes you look old (fashioned). Fräulein has the advantage over Frau that it can be used without name when you don't know it. This is the reason to use Fräulein, not because you consider her nubile prey. In this context there is a male correspondence: Junger Mann, more rarely junger Herr. I could call "Kellner", which is slightly harsh, but Kellnerin would be very impolite. Also "Bedienung" does not sound well in my ears south of the Danube. I would call a male waiter probably by his first name but still Herr. In the case of the waitress Fräulein without name has no implication on her marital status. I would call a fifty year old lady that way in the restaurant . I'd hate to call her Du unless she is my age or above because otherwise it feels like flirting in a sugar daddy manner to me. I will continue to call waitresses Fräulein at the risk of looking old, after all I am. In any case it avoids to be called Du by the service which I really hate. I call waiters and owners Herr (Firstname) even in places where I'm a regular. In particular the Viennese Kaffeehaus always stays Sie, Herr, Fräulein . Langue of course is changing over time and I have to deal with it, but they have to deal with me, not changing in sync, tolerance goes both ways. Nowadays very few still speak authentic dialect I still do quite uncompromisingly , being lucky enough to speak one ( Viennese) which while very distinct is generally understood. At least I got my schnitzel and 🍺 even in Schleswig Holstein. The only occasion when I would moderate my dialect is with foreigners outside my home region. Sexual linguistic differentiation is not discriminatory in all cases. It is a cultural baggage. I call a female nurse, even the doctors assistants or any nun, Schwester at all times, this is a sign of respect.deep respect not contempt. I might call a monk Bruder sometimes, but never a male health care operator . Language is not a means for educating adults to whatever ideas. It is a means for communication. Right now there is a discussion on the n word because of Joe Rogan. The word N e ger in my dialect had no negative connotation, just like Zi geuner. The first was not connoted at all because except for American occupation forces there was none. Zigeunerbaron Zigeunerschnitzel sounds like love of freedom, good music good food. When I speak my dialect which. I do 99 % of the time these terms are without alternative. "Schwarzer" would sound derogatory in my ears, Farbiger ridiculous ( which colour, green martian?). Using any of these neologisms, newspeech Orwell would term them, would sound totally out of place talking to my friends and family. I have met many gypsies, they always selfidentify as Zigeuner, zingari in Italian. Never Roma and/or Sinti. They call us Dillo which means idiot in their language, because we don't understand them. I'm not offended as I m not offended that Slavs call us nemetsky which means mumbler or stutterer because we are hard to understand to them. The Austrian term tschusch is slightly derogatory for yugoslav, but less offensive than calling a Croat Serb, or a Serb Bosniac. And it is not citizenship which defines what they would like to be called, but religion So in case of doubt I stay with tschusch and they call me mumbler. Registers make a language rich. Spoken British English is very vulgar, even that of educated men Ricky Gervais is comic but not unrealistic. People use cu.., tw.., bu.. all the time otherwise no one would know their meaning. All these unpleasant archetypes of people would not disappear just because we erased the words for them from the dictionary. It is very dangerous however, to learn english in the north of England and than try to visit or work in an American company. In any case I really liked your video which gave me a chance to have second thoughts on my weird mother tongue.
Yes, you really shouldnt say fräulein to a woman in germany, the only occasion where you would say it is when you're really upset or someone isnt listening, but thats very rare. Many parents say it to their daughters when their upset or angry tho. (For example: Daughter: Im going to a party now. Parent: Fräulein, you stay here now, you need to do your homework and learn for the exam tomorrow!
2:00 in Austria at least "(Herr/Frau) Ober" can be used to call waiters/waitresses, the single word suffices. However, it is also a slowly disappearing expression.
In a more formal setting, that's still the case in Germany, too. And of course when you know the server, you can use something like "Schwester Oberin"... :-D :-D :-D (Disclaimer: you REALLY need to know that person quite well - and probably for a long time already - to use that one jokingly without getting scolded at! :-) )
Great information. Having not been too often in German restaurants or pubs the last two years, I nearly forgot how I normally ask for the waitress or the waiter. I think a neutral "Hallo, Bedienung, bitte" is still acceptable, if the non-verbal efforts to call anybody from the staff have been failed for a few times. So, I am just wondering what would be less polite: to call a waitress "Bediengung", "Fräulein" or even "Mädchen" (girl). By the way: in my French lessons I learned that a waiter is called with "garçon". Is there some native French(wo)man who can tell me if this polite? Or is this the same thing, but other language. ... Now, I remember what I generally do when I am overlooked by the waitress: I stand up, go to her and ask her kindly if she may want to come to our table.
Normally you just have to make eye contact by raising your hand and say "Entschuldigung, die Rechnung bitte." ("Excuse me, the bill please.) Greetings from Berlin 😎
When I had secular communion (Jugendweihe), my old relatives wrote me letters addressed with "Fräulein [my name]". It was weird, but hey they sent me money. 😅
After dealing with the English and the German language for some decades I've stopped loocking for reasons. Language is simply tradition and every once in a while somebody writes down the updated habits of how to express thoughts. These notes become rules - until next time.
Well at least in the northern parts of germany (Schleswig Holstein and the north-west coast of Niedersachsen) where there are still some influenced parts of Platt-Deutsch there are some "words" to patronizingly call young boys like "min jung" or "Bub"
"Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen wünscht Papageno sich! O so ein sanftes Täubchen wär' Seligkeit für mich! ..." VERY old-fashioned! 😂 (Mozart: Die Zauberflöte / The Magic Flute)
Mädchen is the diminutive of Maid, which is no longer used... so it is basically the same word as maiden... which is also an English diminutive of maid.
Als es noch üblich war in einem Restaurant nach dem Kellner mit "Herr Ober" zu rufen, war es in gewissem Sinne eine Beleidung die Formulierung "Herr Kellner" zu verwenden, auch wenn der Kellner wirklich nur ein Kellner war. Das "Ober" kommt vom Oberkellner, also irgendwie der Vorgesetzte des Kellner.
When I saw the thumbnail and title I thought, that it is about "Dirne" which is a traditional Bavarian dress and often associated with the wearer, but really means Pr*stitute
What you should use instead is, of course, a very loud "BEDIENUNG!". Emphasis is on all the capital letters and the exclamation mark. Note: a "Bedienung" will often not work.
The plural of "Männchen" is wrong. A classic Copy & Paste mistake ;). I wonder whether there is a connection to the French "Garçon", which also means "boy" IIRC. Now my knowledge of French ends here, so maybe someone here can enlighten me? Also, is there an equivalent for the females like in German?
Bei mir im Ausbildungsbetrieb auch noch in den frühen 90ern. Das kam mir da aber auch schon etwas antiquiert vor. Habe ich danach auch nicht mehr so gehört.
ein paar ältere Damen haben noch darauf bestanden so angesprochen zu werden. Manche anderen älteren Leute haben sich geweigert es nicht mehr zu sagen. und solange der Begriff an Minderjährige Mädchen gerichtet ist, ist an dem Wort nichts auszusetzen.
Das muss aber ein verkrusteter Laden gewesen sein oder jemand legte unbedingt Wert darauf. Standard war das in den 1990er-Jahren schon lange nicht mehr.
It's not uncommon to adress your wife as "mein Frauchen", almost always meant in a positive way. Like from the perspective of a dog, making clear who's the boss. Interestingly enough I'm not aware of women calling their husband "mein Herrchen". This probably again means that women/wives generally are the master and not the dog in a marriage 🙂
So since all -chen words, including Mädchen, are neuter, the correct german translation of "The girl and her doll..." is: "Das Mädchen und seine Puppe" and not: "Das Mädchen und ihre Puppe" 😅
Hence “Frau Farbissina” and not “Fräulein Farbissina” - despite the fact that she is a spinster who without doubt never got married (and disregarding a brief, mojo-induced fling with Dr. Evil). Nevertheless, I remember that during college we had a female professor who was well into her 50s yet INSISTED on being addressed as “Fräulein”. Which, almost needless to say, I found rather odd.
Maybe it's just because I am Swiss and speak a strange mountain-german, but I would have said that "Fräulein" should be pronounced rather like "Frölein" than "Freulein" as rewboss does here. Any Germans here that can help me out?
At around 3:50 you show the plural of "das Männchen" as "die Weibchen". I don't think that's how it works. ;) Also, I feel like you are overstating the offensiveness of "Fräulein". Nowadays, it's mostly used as a cute, slightly mocking nickname for young women/girls. The connotation regarding marital status is completely gone, at least colloquially. However, as with most nicknames, it is very inappropriate to use it for strangers. But there may also be generational differences, perhaps even regional ones, I don't know.
Nostalgia for the times when Germany was able to clean up injustice towards women in our language without turning it into right wing culture war bullshit.
Couldn't one just use, "Kellner?" or "Kellnerin?" to hail a waiter? with or without an "Entschuldigung" afterwards? I know we do this is English with "Waiter?" or "Waitress?" I am attempting to learn German. Thanks!
Männchen could also mean something like figurine. For example a lego Männchen. (Not to be confused with Menschen, wich means humans... oh boy, we really know how to make things easy)
In Russia they address people in a completely different way. I remember calling women with 40+ years old as "girls" (девушки) and men as (singular form) "young person" (молодой человек.) For women, calling them as such somehow amused them. I was 33 at that time, women of all ages smiled at me, especially when they learned that I was a Brazilian somewhat fluent in Russian. The umlaut thing in Männchen i suppose it's how the plural form is differentiated from the singular, as Bruder/Brüder for instance. And a diminutive without any suffix is (das) Kind. So confusing! 😔
Kind is not a diminutive, it's just (grammatical) neuter - it means child Also (das) Baby. In contrast to (der) Teenager (always male, even if it's a girl) and (der/die) Erwachsene (male is default, but use the right gender if known) - meaning the adult
Hahaha now iam very facilitated. After i read the headline i thought about many other bad and controversial words, especially from and about the "1000" years between 1933-1945. But in direct comparison "Fräulein" is so harmless. Its like many other words. They can change the meaning in the way you say AND you mean it. Thats why i think its useless to change the language like many people try to do it today. In the TV, Radio, newspapers more and more people start to "gender" the language or to ban some words. Never forget that you can speak correctly and think in a complete other way.
Hey! German is never stupid! There's a system to everything. A becomes Ä! Mann, Männchen Lamm, Lämmchen Lampe, Lämpchen Hand, Händchen Dach, Dächlein Bach, Bächlein etc.
"For... reasons..." I laughed. The reasons mostly are that Germany is a very old language and so stuff is handed down from generation to generation that has lost its reasons, and often it's still there because you learned it as a kid and it doesn't feel wrong. In the case of "Männchen" I can think of the reason to not mix it up with the Dativ of "manche": Manchen, which would be pronouced exactly like "Männchen" without the umlaut. But: Adding an umlaut with a diminuitiv happens very often in the German language, so maybe it's an onomatopoetic thing: Hühnchen (from Huhn = hen) rolls off the tongue better - and just sounds smaller cuter. A third explanation would be that the dimiuitiv uses the plural form as a root: Mann - Männer, Maus - Mäuse, Huhn - Hühner. Don't ask me why that is. I would have to refer you to my first argument. I'm glad I had English as a second language...
It is a pity that "Fräulein" was banished from the german day to day language because it was how you politely addressed a young woman. It was a sign of respect
Well, nowadays you politely adress a young woman as Frau (+surname) or maybe as "junge Dame" when you want to be very polite and formal with a stranger. You just use the same terms as you would use for any adult woman of any age. Using a different term for a younger woman certainly never was a special form of respect for youth, but rather a step below the full adult adress and I'm glad it is abolished. (Though I know some unmarried older ladies used to actually take pride in the term Fräulein and insisted on that adress back in the day). It took some getting used to and I remember my 18-year-old classmates in the 1990ties were still weirded out and said they felt "old" when someone adressed them as "Frau XY". The term might have survived longer if it wasn't literally a diminutive, which conveys the outdated implication that a girl doesn't become a "full" woman until she marries.
I'd probably use "Fräulein" for formally addressing a youth... but again... this may be outdated as well :D On the other hand there are some elderly single ladies who will tear your head off if you call them Frau... and not Fräulein :D
It is outdated in that use as well. Although it is common for parents to call their badly behaving daughter "Fräulein", or "Frollein" here in the Rhineland. Like, "Mein liebes Frollein!" - There's nothing endearing about such a call.
@@dirkschwartz1689 My mother always scolded my sister saying, "Mein liebes, liebes Fräulein!" back when she was still a toddler. When she learnt to speak she imitated that with our dog, who was male :D
I think in that context "Männchen" just means person. Male is traditionally the default when the sex is not known. Or has been; these days that seems to be considered offensive, even though there exists no efficient alternative. :P
Female teachers used to be Fräuleins. Mine was "Fräulein Bauer". The sad reason behind is that until about 1955 women working for the government were not allowed to marry. So female teachers either had to stay unmarried or stop working. Btw. same with the "Fräulein vom Amt"
Sorry to be so direct here, but to your cats both you and your wife are just their servants. Not Frauchen and Herrchen. ;-) (But from a language perspective you are of course right. Every cat servant should get the joke.)
