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I am not a German native speaker. I know that in certain situations the pronoun "es" has a different usage than the English "it", but I am not sure when it should be used and when it shouldn't.

Here are two examples I would like to ask some clarifications for.

Example 1:

I want to translate: "A new book will be presented tomorrow". My intuition tells me: "Es wird morgen ein neues Buch präsentiert." but I am not sure about this. Is it correct to start the sentence with es if the subject is missing or is not the first element of the sentence?

Example 2:

A slightly more complex example. "Moreover it would be interesting for me to..." Translation: "Darüber hinaus wäre es für mich interessant, ... zu ..."

Is it correct to put "es" in this case? Or should I simply write "Darüber hinaus wäre für mich interessant, ... zu ..."?

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  • Instinkt ist angeboren. Die Sprache ist nicht angeboren. Was immer zu Dir in sprachlichen Angelegenheiten spricht - der Instinkt ist es nicht.
    – user unknown
    Commented Jun 18, 2012 at 4:05
  • Ich meinte mein intuitives Verständnis: ich würde es so sagen aber ich kann nicht erklären warum.
    – Giorgio
    Commented Jun 18, 2012 at 4:16

2 Answers 2

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"Es wird morgen ein neues Buch präsentiert."

is correct. It sounds a little better when you change the word order and omit the es:

"Morgen wird ein neues Buch präsentiert."

Your second example:

"Darüber hinaus wäre es für mich interessant, ...

"Darüber hinaus wäre für mich interessant, ... zu ..."

Both sentences are correct in my opinion.

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    The only thing I would add is that using the "es" in this case makes it into "there" in English, like "es wird" = "there is/will be" and so on. That's probably what you meant by "a different usage than the English 'it'". Its inclusion or exclusion works the same way in both languages.
    – Kevin
    Commented Jun 18, 2012 at 5:16
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    My feelling is, that "Es wird morgen ein neues Buch präsentiert" puts an emphasis on the book, e.g. as an answer to the question "was wird eigentlich morgen vorgestellt?". The word order that splattne gave has not such emphasis IMO. On a second note: I don't like these language constructs which omit the persons acting, because they sound a little bit impersonal (duh).
    – 0x6d64
    Commented Jun 18, 2012 at 8:16
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I would say when referring to a generic everyman, like using "one" in English or "on" in French. But closer to how it's used in French, outside of a certain meme, it sounds a little awkward in English.

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