Greetings & Formality

du vs Sie ~ neenu vs neevu

Kannada already switches from ನೀನು to ನೀವು for elders, strangers, and formal settings — in fact, in spoken Kannada today, ನೀವು is often the safer default outside close relationships, since ನೀನು can sound blunt if used with the wrong person. German draws a similar line: use Sie with anyone you'd address as ನೀವು — shopkeepers, teachers, officials — and du only with close friends, family, and children, same as ನೀನು. One thing German does that Kannada doesn't: it has a separate word ihr for addressing a group informally, while Sie covers both formal singular and formal plural. Kannada just reuses ನೀವು for all of that, so don't go looking for a fourth pronoun.