German er sie es Explained: Pronouns & Gender

Der, die, das have an element of pointing, while er, sie, es are super neutral. It’s not really wrong, but it does sound a bit odd and I don’t think a German would use it. This is one of those examples where a learner would ask if they can also use er. Because today, we’ll explore the question Today, we’ll actually look at the difference between two groups. And welcome to a new episode of What is the Difference, the series where we look at two German words that seem to mean the same but don’t mean the same.
Confusing sie (she) with sie (they). Der Rock (the skirt) is masculine, so it is er. Das Mädchen (the girl) is neuter because of the diminutive suffix -chen, so grammatically it is es, not sie.
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 in reverse, when talking about things, they still might use der or die, because er or sie feels a bit too much like a person. This is quite subtle, and it doesn’t always matter, but in some contexts, it can make a difference in tone.
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.
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 aphrodite casino sentence. Just make sure you don’t worry too much about it when trying to speak.

How Does Noun Gender Affect Pronouns in German?

• Context is powerful, and with practice, you will develop the same instinct.
• Please note that in English we use the pronoun it when we talk about ‘objects’ which are not equivalent to people.
• Der Rock (the skirt) is masculine, so it is er.
• Hidden-language examples are blurred — click a blurred example to reveal it.
• I can find a lot of instances of “pretty guy” for instance.
• Ob der da ist oder nicht ist mir total egal.
• But I have a question – this also works for plural, right?

It’s NOT about the difference between der, die and das. This was not topic of the article at all. Why not address the reason for 3 versions of the same pronoun or definite & indefinite articles right up front? ’, although I know you can also use ‘der’ for people so that’s probably just an effect of (mis-)translation….
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.

er, sie, es and der, die das – What’s the Difference – Key Questions

• Den kenne ich nicht, aber der, der mit Maria redet, das ist Thomas.
• This does NOT work because es stands for the beer and but for the beginning of the sentence, you need a word with more substance.
• Listen to natives and copy sentence starts where ‚der‘, ‚die‘, ‚das‘ appear.
• This feels strange to English speakers, but it is grammatically correct.
• In written German, Sie with a capital S always means the formal „you.“ Lowercase sie means „she,“ „it,“ or „they.“
• ‚er‘, ’sie‘, ‚es‘ are neutral stand-ins.
• But in Berlin, we don’t do that.

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.

Feminine Nouns → sie

— 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.

What Is the Difference Between er, sie, and es?

There is one on “Das habe ich auf bemerkt” That should probably be an ‘Auch’ And please do make a quiz or exercise about this topic! But I have a question – this also works for plural, right? But in Berlin, we don’t do that. The question mark immediately after the name is implied. Sounds fine to my ear but probably weird to the north German ear.

Use er, sie or es instead of the article and the noun

In writing this is clear; in speech, context does the work. Casesie (they)Sie (you formal)NominativesieSieAccusativesieSieDativeihnenIhnen Only capitalization and context distinguish them.