Lesson 10: er, sie, es, sie
10.1 Substituting Pronouns for Names to Provide Variety
If we were to use someone's name over and over again in a text, it would get old pretty quickly. That's where pronouns come in. They refer back to the same person and because the context is clear, they provide some nice variety in a text.
Let's use this set of names and pronouns for this lesson:
| Person or thing | German Pronoun | English pronoun |
| Johann | er | he |
| Gisela | sie | she |
| das Gericht (the court) | es | it |
| Viele Leser (many readers, plural) | sie (plural) | they |
And now let's try it out. Here are sentences from previous lessons with the original subjects, either a person, a thing, people, or things, and the pronouns to provide some variety.
Er (he)
| Der Dieb ist der Polizei entkommen. | Er ist der Polizei entkommen. |
| The thief evaded capture by police. | He evaded capture by the police. |
Sie (she)
| Gisela liest die Nachrichten und trinkt Tee. | Sie liest die Nachrichten und trinkt Tee. |
