The article is about the difference between “es” and “das” (“er” and “der”, “sie” and “die”) when used as pronouns. Get your head around that & you can move on swiftly to learning which nouns are either of the 3 & why they need the correct version of the articles. Clearly it’s because certain languages like French & German classify nouns as Masculine – der (er), Feminine -die (sie), or Neuter – das (es).
— You are coming.ihr (dative of sie)her / to herIch gebe ihr das Buch. FormMeaningExamplesie (+ singular verb)she / it (feminine)Sie kommt. The table is masculine, so it gets the masculine pronoun.
- ‘der’ and ‘die’ are more pointy and work nicely in sentence-initial spots.
- Doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, but it’s not part of the standard vernacular.
- FormMeaningExamplesie (+ singular verb)she / it (feminine)Sie kommt.
- Here, it’s not 100% clear if I was told BY Thomas or ABOUT Thomas.
- And the worst part is the young Swabians were REALLY nice people.
- The word sie is famously overloaded in German.
— She is coming.sie (+ plural verb)theySie kommen. The word sie is famously overloaded in German. In casual speech, Germans often switch to er or sie based on the child’s actual gender, but the grammatical rule says es. This feels strange to English speakers, but it is grammatically correct. Der Computer funktioniert nicht.
Why Do Germans Say “sie” for So Many Things?
— The table is new. If you know a noun’s article, you automatically know which pronoun to use. This applies to people, animals, objects, and abstract concepts alike. The critical difference is the “Used for” column. Understanding er, sie, and es is essential because these three small words do far more work in German than their English equivalents.
If you pay attention to native speakers, you’ll hear der, die, das and den and dem a LOT at the beginning of sentences like these. So der and die are more pointy than er and sie. The difference in pointy-ness is the same. The only real difference to English is the second example here, where in English that and it work, while in German das is way more idiomatic than es.
- Or, maybe a gay guy talking about another gay guy.
- In casual speech, Germans often switch to er or sie based on the child’s actual gender, but the grammatical rule says es.
- But this is really more of a feeling than a rule.
- I think the most important aspect is definitely the pointy-ness though and in the right context, that can be used to make your sentence less ambiguous.
- And the best way to feel that, I think, is to go back over the examples for it vs that that we had.
- Ihm is dative for both masculine and neuter nouns.
Er, sie or es – Exercise B:
“das ist” or “es ist” – learners often wonder about the difference and the German way of doing it is a little different than English. My handmade dictionary for learners – meanings, word families, examples and all without AI slop.
And the worst part is the young Swabians were REALLY nice people. I had a period in my life where I knew many young people from Baden-Württemberg and they all did it. In Austria (and perhaps southern Germany), when referring to another person who is familiar, it’s usual to use the definite article with their name.
How Does Noun Gender Affect Pronouns in German?
If I wanted to do a slight dig I might refer to a guy as a pretty boy (like Arnold S’s girly man reference). For me – American (and older) – pretty is feminine. You can describe a guy as pretty, but then it is a “girlish” appearance (and generally not really a complement). I can find a lot of instances of “pretty guy” for instance.
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Or at least it’s very unlikely. My brain doesn’t have distinct words in German, so it’ll just always hear “pretty” and “handsome” as synonyms so I’d never notice this on my own. This topic and your prefix dictionary are exactly where I am in my journey into this heart of darkness. Or, maybe a gay guy talking about another gay guy. The elves in Lord of the Rings might be described as pretty.
This explanation really clarifies the nuances between these German pronouns and articles. Listen to natives aphrodite casino and copy sentence starts where ‘der’, ‘die’, ‘das’ appear. Avoid starting a sentence with ‘es’ when it refers to a specific thing. Whether that guy is there or not I really don’t care.