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.
In the first example, it aphrodite casino sounds REALLY weird, in the second one, both sound okay. And er, sie, es are pronouns, so they stand in for persons and things in our sentence. If you’re looking for my lessons, articles about topics or resources I have posted about, search here.
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….
- Ihr is dative for feminine nouns only.
- It’s NOT about the difference between der, die and das.
- Try both versions aloud and notice which one sounds pointy and which sounds neutral.
- The difference to das and es is that er and sie (and their case versions) are not quite as bland as es.
- In written, the das has to go or there needs to be a – or something because you’re kind of restarting your sentence.
Please note that in English we use the pronoun it when we talk about ‘objects’ which are not equivalent to people. If you have a noun with a feminine article (die) then the article and the noun can be replaced with sie. Adjust the playback speed for audio examples — still sounds fine down to about 70%. Here, “sie” would sound weird, and “die” doesn’t sound negative or distanced.
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.
Your Comments and Questions
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.
- The article is about the difference between “es” and “das” (“er” and “der”, “sie” and “die”) when used as pronouns.
- Looking forward to the practice session.
- With the question, you do need the pointy version, and same for “den, der mit Maria redet” because this “den” is actually not an entity yet.
- The difference in pointy-ness is the same.
- And the only difference really is that the version with sie sounds less pointy and a bit more personal.
- According to them, it’s rare in Berlin.
What Is the Difference Between er, sie, and es?
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.
Learn German
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.
In writing this is clear; in speech, context does the work. Casesie (they)Sie (you formal)NominativesieSieAccusativesieSieDativeihnenIhnen Only capitalization and context distinguish them.
And this is also a fact.I’m about to do just that, because the beer is there, and we’re pretty much done here for today. 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. And do NOT use es at the start of a sentence. But the bottom line is… don’t stress about this too much. It’s really a difference of vibe.
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.
