GermanFluent

A1 · Personal pronouns

der Tisch → er

er, sie, es replace a thing by its gender

FormNomen (der / die / das) … Personalpronomen er / sie / es

Meaning and usage

Every German noun has a gender: der, die or das. When the same thing comes up again as the subject of the next sentence, you replace the noun with er, sie or es, and the pronoun follows the gender of the noun, not what the thing is: der Tisch becomes er, die Suppe becomes sie, das Buch becomes es.

So a table is er and a lamp is sie, even though neither is a person. English speakers often say es for every thing, because English uses it: Wo ist der Schlüssel? Es ist hier. is wrong, because der Schlüssel needs er. As an object the pronoun changes its form, but the gender rule stays the same.

Examples 4

Test yourself

  1. 1 Sprachbausteine

    Wo ist die Lampe? ist neu.

    Show answer

    Correct answer: Sie

    Die Lampe is a feminine noun, so the pronoun that replaces it is sie. The question uses die Lampe, which rules out the other forms.

    • Ihr is the dative form for a feminine noun, as in mit der Lampe, mit ihr, but here the pronoun is the subject, so the nominative sie is needed.
    • Es replaces a neuter noun such as das Buch, but die Lampe is feminine.
    • Er replaces a masculine noun such as der Tisch, but die Lampe is feminine.

In this topic: Personal pronouns

  1. ich, du, er, sie, es, wir, ihr, sie I, you, he, she, it, we, you, they
  2. du / Sie Polite you, capitalised Sie with the verb in the -en form
  3. der Tisch → er er, sie, es replace a thing by its gender
  4. mich, dich, ihn me, you, him as the one acted on
  5. mir, dir, ihm to me, to you, to him: the person who gets something
  6. helfen, gefallen + Dativ help, please, belong to, taste, thank, answer + dative
  7. es gibt + Akkusativ there is, there are
  8. Ich gebe es dir. When both objects are pronouns, the accusative comes first

Example sentences from Tatoeba, used under CC BY 2.0 FR. See sources.