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.
I didn’t know about this “pretty” vs “handsome” and I’m not sure it’s consensus in English. I’m also surprised at you saying that in Berlin people don’t say “der Thomas”. Try both versions aloud and notice which one sounds pointy and which sounds neutral. ‘er’ and ‘sie’ feel more personal and neutral. Which can make you feel lost… but it can also feel like freedom. And the best way to feel that, I think, is to go back over the examples for it vs that that we had.
— 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.
What Is the Difference Between er, sie, and es?
Den kenne ich nicht, aber der, der mit Maria redet, das ist Thomas. To say also something related to the topic, for me the pointy der, die, das translate as that one. I’m pretty sure German too must have some word for handsome, that only applies to males, but I can’t remember how it goes. I re-read the 1st sentence and the 2nd. I was doing my normal reading and listening and all of a sudden there was this person – an “er” – in the next sentence. Just make sure you don’t worry too much about it when trying to speak.
- Der Rock (the skirt) is masculine, so it is er.
- But I have a question – this also works for plural, right?
- Ob der da ist oder nicht ist mir total egal.
- Hidden-language examples are blurred — click a blurred example to reveal it.
- Please note that in English we use the pronoun it when we talk about ‘objects’ which are not equivalent to people.
- I can find a lot of instances of “pretty guy” for instance.
Why Do Germans Say “sie” for So Many Things?
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.
Not learning nouns with articles. If the noun’s article is der or das, the dative pronoun is ihm. Mixing up ihm and ihr in dative.
er and sie vs der and die
But it does have that definite-article-for-talking-about-people thing! Not in a sense that you’re ONLY doing one of those, but more in a sense of which of the two is more in focus? I can’t feel it at all either. Hi Emmanuel, thanks a lot for this article, I am trying to get to B2 and this topic is for me particularly confusing.
Table of Contents
- In fact, even some people from Cologne did it and it’s super odd to me because in Berlin we don’t do it.
- Not learning nouns with articles.
- If you’re looking for my lessons, articles about topics or resources I have posted about, search here.
- The question mark immediately after the name is implied.
- Hi Emmanuel, thanks a lot for this article, I am trying to get to B2 and this topic is for me particularly confusing.
— 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 aphrodite casino way more idiomatic than es.
Sometimes you can but they feel different. ‘es’ is too bland for referring to a specific thing at the start of a sentence. ‘er’, ‘sie’, ‘es’ are neutral stand-ins. Meanwhile, if you have any questions or suggestions, just leave me a comment and I’ll do my best to clear things up. So yeah… I think this might actually be worth a proper practice session so I’ll see that I’ll set one up for the coming weeks. I kind of feel that some of you are probably a little disappointed because you expected some more clear cut rules.

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