Saying what something is like: subject pronouns 'er', 'sie', 'es' for 'it' | German

Starter quiz

Match the German words below to the correct English translations.
- die Mutter
  
  ⇔
  
  mother ✓
- der Vater
  
  ⇔
  
  father ✓
- die Nacht
  
  ⇔
  
  night ✓
- der Kopf
  
  ⇔
  
  head ✓
Match the German words below to the correct English translations.
- dunkel
  
  ⇔
  
  dark ✓
- das Problem
  
  ⇔
  
  problem ✓
- das Beispiel
  
  ⇔
  
  example ✓
- die Schule
  
  ⇔
  
  school ✓
Select the plural nouns.
- die Schnitzel ✓
- das Spiel
- das Haustier
- die Filme ✓
Translate the following sentence into English: 'Die Spiele sind da.'
- 'The games are there.' ✓
Match up the forms of 'sein' to the correct English translations.
- ich bin
  
  ⇔
  
  I am ✓
- du bist
  
  ⇔
  
  you are ✓
- er ist
  
  ⇔
  
  he is ✓
- sie ist
  
  ⇔
  
  she is ✓
- sie sind
  
  ⇔
  
  they are ✓
Match the grammatical genders to the correct forms of 'the'.
- masculine
  
  ⇔
  
  der ✓
- feminine
  
  ⇔
  
  die ✓
- neuter
  
  ⇔
  
  das ✓

What is the subject in the following sentence? 'Die Katze ist klein.'
- die Katze ✓
- ist
- klein
Which subject pronoun would you use in German for 'it' when referring to a neuter noun?
- er
- sie
- es ✓
In German, what determines which version of 'it' ('er', 'sie', or 'es') is used in a sentence?
- the biological gender of the subject
- the grammatical gender of the subject ✓
- the biological and grammatical gender of the subject
Put the steps we must follow to decide which version of 'it' to use in German in the correct order.
- 1
  
  ⇔
  
  Identify the noun the subject pronoun is replacing.
- 2
  
  ⇔
  
  Determine the grammatical gender of the noun.
- 3
  
  ⇔
  
  Choose the correct subject pronoun: 'er', 'sie', or 'es'.
In the sentence 'Der Hund ist schwarz. Er ist groß.', why is 'er' used for 'it'?
- because 'Hund' is feminine
- because 'Hund' is masculine ✓
- because 'Hund' is neuter
- because 'Hund' is plural
Change the sentence 'Die Flasche ist rot.' to say 'It is red.'. Replace the noun with a subject pronoun.
- 'Sie ist rot.' ✓

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[ö] can be either long like in 'schön' or short like in 'plötzlich'.
In German, subject pronouns tell us the grammatical gender of the subject.
German has three words for the subject pronoun 'it' - masculine 'er', feminine 'sie' and neuter 'es'.

'Er' and 'sie' only mean 'he' and 'she'.

Whilst 'er' and 'sie' do mean 'he' and 'she', they are also the masculine and neuter words for 'it'.

[ö] - pronounced long [ö] as in ‘schön’ and short [ö] as in 'plötzlich'
Subject pronoun - represents the person, people or thing(s) doing the verb, e.g., I, we, they
Er - subject pronoun ‘he’ and ‘it’ for masculine nouns
Sie - subject pronoun ‘she’ and ‘it’ for feminine nouns
Es - subject pronoun ‘it’ for neuter nouns