Lektion 1A: Strukturen Show 2

Subject Pronouns

In German, as in English, any noun can be replaced with an equivalent pronoun. A subject pronoun replaces a noun that functions as the subject of a sentence (see table).

Subject Pronoun Table (binary/octet-stream)

The gender of a noun determines the gender of the pronoun that replaces it. German use er for all masculine nouns, sie for all feminine nouns and es for all neutral nouns. Der Tisch ist klein. (The table is small.)  ---> Er ist klein. (It's small.)

Subject Pronouns: Maskulinum

Subject Pronouns: Femininum

The gender of a noun determines the gender of the pronoun that replaces it. German use er for all masculine nouns, sie for all feminine nouns and es for all neutral nouns. Die Katze ist sehr faul. (The cat is very lazy.) ---> Sie ist sehr faul. (It's very lazy.)

Subject Pronouns: Neutrum

The gender of a noun determines the gender of the pronoun that replaces it. German use er for all masculine nouns, sie for all feminine nouns and es for all neutral nouns. Das Buch ist neu. (The book is new.) ---> Es ist neu. (It's new.) 

Subject Pronouns: Sie/sie

The pronoun Sie/sie can you "you", "she", "it", or "they" depending on the context. Write Sie with a capital S to mean "you" in a formal context, and sie with a lowercase s to mean "she", "it" or "they". Das ist Frau Hansen. Sie ist Professorin. (That's Mrs. Hansen. She's a professor.) Das sind Lara und Jonas. Sie sind Studenten. (That's Lara and Jonas. They're students.) Woher kommen Sie? (Where are you from?)

The Verb: sein

sein (to be) is an irregular verb; its conjugation does not follow a predictable pattern. Ich bin Amerikaner. (I am American.) Sie ist Deutsche. (She is German.) Wir sind Freunde. (We are friends.)

Sein Conjugation Table (binary/octet-stream)

The Nominative Case

German has four cases that indicate the function of each noun in a sentence. The case of a noun determines the form of the definite or indefinite article that precedes the noun, the form of any adjectives that modify the noun and the form of the pronoun that can replace the noun.

German Cases Table (binary/octet-stream)

The Nominative Case

The grammatical subject of a sentence is always in the nominative case (der Nominativ). Subject pronouns are, by definition, nominative pronouns. The nominative case is also used for nouns that follow a form of sein, werden (to become) or bleiben (to stay; remain). Das ist eine gute Idee. (That is a good idea.) Wir bleiben Freunde. (We are still friends.) The definite and indefinite articles you learned earlier are the forms used with nouns in the nominative case (see table).

Nominative Case Table (binary/octet-stream)