75
votes
Using gender specific pronouns for inanimate objects
Yes, gender applies to pronouns as well. It is a grammatical feature, not a biological.
Correct:
Ich habe meine Tasche gesucht, aber ich habe sie nicht gefunden.
Grammatical gender in English exists ...
- 126k
35
votes
"es" ("it") for a woman
Below is a map from the Atlas der deutschen Alltagssprache1 that shows how article forms for females are distributed. As you can see, neutral article forms (yellow and pink dots) are common in western ...
- 22.9k
25
votes
Accepted
"es" ("it") for a woman
I am from a region where it is normal to refer to a woman with the pronoun "es" (Region of Kaiserslautern). After joining university I was asked that question by some people not familiar ...
- 366
19
votes
"Ihr kleinen Monster?" How come?
This is an area where German grammar shows some instability.
First, note that ihr is a second person plural pronoun in the nominative (accusative and dative would be euch). The appositive noun phrase ...
- 27.3k
19
votes
Construction I need help clarifying in Otfried Preußler's "Krabat"
It's not ihr es, but ihrs / ihres (theirs).
I think, today you would rather say something like:
Sie dachten sich ihren Teil dabei.
They had their own thoughts on the matter.
But as you see: der Teil ...
- 9,120
18
votes
Accepted
Why is “der” used in this excerpt instead of “er”?
A little more context:
Der Junge wußte nicht recht, was er tun sollte, deshalb blieb er einfach stehen und schaute den Mann mit großen Augen an.
Schließlich klappte der sein Buch wieder zu - ...
- 1,394
17
votes
Appropriate pronoun for “you” and “someone else who’s not here right now.”
Gehen du und Bob zur Party?
Is the right answer here. If they were both standing right in front of you you say
Geht ihr zur Party?
But one of the people is not there, so you are talking about a ...
- 1,227
17
votes
Accepted
Why "Ihre" and not "Ihrer"?
Using the genitive is one method to express possession:
Barbaras Katze war krank.
Die Katze des Königs war krank.
However, we also have possessive pronouns to do the same job, and these don't ...
- 15.1k
16
votes
Accepted
When would you use "er" or "sie" instead of "es", specifically with the meaning of "it"?
Auf die Frage
Ist das deine Jacke?
ist die im Deutschen übliche Antwortformulierung:
Nein, das ist nicht meine Jacke.
Wenn du "Sie ist nicht meine Jacke" sagst, erkennt jeder, dass du Deutsch ...
- 31.2k
14
votes
Can I also say: 'ich tut mir leid' instead of 'es tut mir leid'?
You should know that "es tut mir leid" is a kind of formula whose phrasing is fixed. (Languages tend to have many such "fixed phrases".) For example German grammar allows the word ...
- 12k
14
votes
How to say "Each one of the following" in German?
You can use je to make it clear:
Ich muss je einen Satz mit den folgenden Verben schreiben: geben, zeigen, bringen, kochen.
- 9,120
13
votes
Accepted
The differences between “je”, “jeder”, “jegliche”, and “jeweilig”
Maybe these examples can help you:
je (1) (Adverb)
Only in questions: at any time?
Gibt es Bigfoot wirklich? Hat man ihn wirklich je gesehen?
Is Bigfoot real? Has anybody ever seen him?
...
- 126k
12
votes
Two questions on one sentence from »Der Spiegel«
With different word order:
Die Bundesregierung kann nicht ganz sicher sein, dass sie einen Auftritt Erdogans in Deutschland verhindern kann.
The sie refers to die Bundesregierung. I hope that this ...
- 21.1k
12
votes
Accepted
"Respektiere jeder die Lage, in der er ist: so ist jedem gedient."
Answers:
Is 'Respektiere' in the imperative?
Yes, sort of, at least that is what it means. It is the Jussiv, a replacement form for imperative that uses Konjunktiv 1 as the verb form.
Jussiv is a ...
- 66.4k
12
votes
Accepted
Why is ‘eines’ used in the sentence ‘Eines gleich vorweg’?
Here eines is not genitive and not an article. Instead "eines" is a pronoun, and its neuter form is eines.
You can translate this sentence as
One thing right from the start ...
- 11.5k
11
votes
Accepted
What is the function of the ‘es’ in this sentence?
You have stumbled across the use of es as a syntactical expletive.
German sentences (main clauses only; within the context of this answer unless otherwise mentioned) are split into three parts by ...
- 38.9k
11
votes
When would you use "er" or "sie" instead of "es", specifically with the meaning of "it"?
I checked with a friend who is a German. This was the answer I received:
If you are saying "This (thing that isn't a jacket) is not your jacket" = "Es / Das (Ding) ist nicht deine Jacke"...
...or.....
- 331
11
votes
Appropriate pronoun for “you” and “someone else who’s not here right now.”
I don't really think this works in German as planned. Workarounds would be to mentioned Bob beforehand (A), clarify along the way (B) or rephrase it entirely (C).
(A) Was ist mit Bob? Geht ihr ...
- 18.6k
11
votes
Can I exchange relative pronouns and articles in this way?
Note that
Wenn Sie Fragen haben, lassen Sie es mich wissen.
does not mean
If you have questions, let me know them.
but rather
If you have questions, let me know (that fact).
The fact that you ...
- 66.4k
11
votes
Accepted
Ambiguity in determining the owner of a genitive personal pronoun
You can't tell that from grammar alone.
Seiner may refer to an arbitrary masculine or neuter noun. Only context tells which noun it is.
- 64.6k
10
votes
Accepted
Benutzt man "manch" mit Singular oder mit Plural?
Der Facebook-Satz ist falsch.
Das Wort »manch« ist ein Indefinitpronomen, das sowohl im Singular als auch im Plural verwendet werden kann. Dabei muss es aber natürlich dekliniert werden. Dabei gibt ...
- 126k
10
votes
Accepted
The order of dative and accusative in a sentence
You already stated the rule: The dative object precedes the accusative object (not subject), except if the accusative object is a personal pronoun. In this case the pronoun goes first.
So:
Ich ...
- 16.4k
10
votes
„Alles aussteigen bitte“: Warum „alles“?
DWDS bietet als Synonyme für alles an:
die Gesamtheit · was auch immer
Das scheint auch bei Alles auf die Plätze oder Alles, was Odem hat, lobe den Herrn zu passen. Ein weiterer Vorteil ist, dass ...
- 29.6k
10
votes
Accepted
Engelmacher means someone who helps with abortions?
It's a euphemism
Some people believe, that when you die you go to heaven and become an angel.
Originally Engelmacherin was used to describe women, who took children in their care (e.g. orphans) but ...
- 18.6k
10
votes
Accepted
Gottemeitschi is from which German language?
I speak the language, Gottemeitschi means goddaughter. Meitschi is a Term for Mädchen (Girl) commonly and specifically used around Bern. Most Swiss German speakers in northeastern Switzerland would ...
- 116
10
votes
Can possessive pronouns ever come on their own after a noun?
For example, in English (though one may find it increasingly outdated to do so), one might intentionally place their possessive pronoun after a term of endearment, when addressing another ...
9
votes
Accepted
Can ‘sie’ be used to refer to ‘Mädchen’?
The grammatically correct personal pronoun is "es", because "Mädchen" as it is a neuter substanctive. Words with -lein or -chen are diminutive forms of words and always neuter.
...
- 8,555
9
votes
Why did they look stupid? And who are »they«?
Dumm aus der Wäsche gucken does not exactly mean "looking pretty stupid". I do not know the best translation, but it can be explained as:
You have a very good idea how a situation should evolve. You ...
- 961
9
votes
»Es braucht« statt »man braucht«
Als jemand aus dem (Süd-) Westen Bayerns, kurz vor der Sprachgrenze zum Schwäbischen, kommt mir es braucht überhaupt nicht seltsam vor. Ich bin allerdings auch noch relativ jung, kann also nicht sagen,...
- 38.9k
9
votes
Is können a dative verb?
The word ihr can both be the Nominatve of ihr, the 2nd Person Pl. pronoun, and the Dative of sie, the 3rd Person Sg. pronoun. It can also be either the 3rd Person Sg. or Pl. (or the formal 2nd Person) ...
- 2,361
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