New
New
Year 7

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

Learning outcomes

I can say what something is like, identifying grammatical gender and using the correct word for ‘it’.

I can recognise the short and long [ö] sound.

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New
New
Year 7

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

Learning outcomes

I can say what something is like, identifying grammatical gender and using the correct word for ‘it’.

I can recognise the short and long [ö] sound.

Link copied to clipboard

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Lesson details

Vocabulary and transcripts for this lessons

Key learning points

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

Keywords

  • [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

Common misconception

'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'.


To help you plan your year 7 german lesson on: Saying what something is like: subject pronouns 'er', 'sie', 'es' for 'it', download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

Reiterate to your learners that the subject pronoun is not related to biological gender, e.g., a male doesn't say 'er' for everything. It depends on the grammatical gender of the noun.
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Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2025), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

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6 Questions

Q1.
Match the German words below to the correct English translations.
Correct Answer:die Mutter,mother

mother

Correct Answer:der Vater,father

father

Correct Answer:die Nacht,night

night

Correct Answer:der Kopf,head

head

Q2.
Match the German words below to the correct English translations.
Correct Answer:dunkel,dark

dark

Correct Answer:das Problem,problem

problem

Correct Answer:das Beispiel,example

example

Correct Answer:die Schule,school

school

Q3.
Select the plural nouns.
Correct answer: die Schnitzel
das Spiel
das Haustier
Correct answer: die Filme
Q4.
Translate the following sentence into English: 'Die Spiele sind da.'
Correct Answer: The games are there., The games are here. , The games are there, The games are here
Q5.
Match up the forms of 'sein' to the correct English translations.
Correct Answer:ich bin,I am

I am

Correct Answer:du bist,you are

you are

Correct Answer:er ist,he is

he is

Correct Answer:sie ist,she is

she is

Correct Answer:sie sind,they are

they are

Q6.
Match the grammatical genders to the correct forms of 'the'.
Correct Answer:masculine,der

der

Correct Answer:feminine,die

die

Correct Answer:neuter,das

das

6 Questions

Q1.
What is the subject in the following sentence? 'Die Katze ist klein.'
Correct answer: die Katze
ist
klein
Q2.
Which subject pronoun would you use in German for 'it' when referring to a neuter noun?
er
sie
Correct answer: es
Q3.
In German, what determines which version of 'it' ('er', 'sie', or 'es') is used in a sentence?
the biological gender of the subject
Correct answer: the grammatical gender of the subject
the biological and grammatical gender of the subject
Q4.
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'.
Q5.
In the sentence 'Der Hund ist schwarz. Er ist groß.', why is 'er' used for 'it'?
because 'Hund' is feminine
Correct answer: because 'Hund' is masculine
because 'Hund' is neuter
because 'Hund' is plural
Q6.
Change the sentence 'Die Flasche ist rot.' to say 'It is red.'. Replace the noun with a subject pronoun.
Correct Answer: Sie ist rot., Sie ist rot

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