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.
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.
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.
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).
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.

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

In the first example, it 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.

Table of Contents

• Or from the other side… die sounds more distant.
• The critical difference is the “Used for” column.
• And please do make a quiz or exercise about this topic!
• — She is coming.sie (+ plural verb)theySie kommen.
• In writing this is clear; in speech, context does the work.
• So they wouldn’t sound wrong, they just sound quite weird in these examples above.

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 aphrodite casino “girlish” appearance (and generally not really a complement). I can find a lot of instances of “pretty guy” for instance.

• Because today, we’ll explore the question
• It’s really a difference of vibe.
• “das ist” or “es ist” – learners often wonder about the difference and the German way of doing it is a little different than English.
• Meanwhile, if you have any questions or suggestions, just leave me a comment and I’ll do my best to clear things up.
• Why not address the reason for 3 versions of the same pronoun or definite & indefinite articles right up front?
• This explanation really clarifies the nuances between these German pronouns and articles.

Learn German Faster

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.
This explanation really clarifies the nuances between these German pronouns and articles. Listen to natives 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.

Your Comments and Questions

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.