English has one you. German picks one of three, depending on how many people you're talking to and how well you know them:

	one person	several people
informal — friends, family, children, fellow students	du	ihr
polite — strangers, shops, offices, older people	Sie	Sie

• Polite Sie is always written with a capital S and takes the same verb form as sie (they): Sind Sie Frau Becker?
• With Sie come surnames and titles: Herr Schmidt (Mr Schmidt), Frau Becker (Mrs or Ms Becker). Frau is the normal title for every adult woman.