In German, pronouns must have the same gender as the noun they replace. But remember that gender is determined not by reference to males, females, or inanimate objects but rather by the structure of the noun. Since some German masculine nouns are inanimate objects, the German masculine pronoun can mean it when referring to something inanimate, or it can mean he when referring to a male. The same thing occurs with feminine and neuter pronouns. Look at the following examples for masculine, feminine, neuter, and plural nouns and their respective pronouns.
masculine noun masculine pronoun
der Lehrer teacher er he
der Gärtner gardener er he
der Wald forest er it
der Bleistift pencil er it
feminine noun feminine pronoun
die Tante aunt sie she
die Dame lady sie she
die Zeitung newspaper sie it
die Vase vase sie it
neuter noun neuter pronoun
das Kind child es he or she
das Mädchen girl es she
das Land country es it
das Bild picture es it
plural noun plural pronoun
die Kinder children sie they
die Leute people sie they
die Häuser houses sie they
die Blumen flowers sie they
Besides the third-person pronouns that substitute for nouns (er, sie, es, and plural sie), there are also first-person, second-person informal, and second-person formal pronouns.
singular pronoun plural pronoun
ich I wir we
du you informal ihr you informal
Sie you formal Sie you formal
There is another third-person singular pronoun: man. This pronoun is used where English uses one or you when referring to people in general. Often man is used where the general terms people or they are said.
Hier spricht man nur Deutsch. One only speaks German here.
Man hat von dort eine gute Aussicht. You have a good view from there.
Man fährt in Europa oft mit dem Fahrrad. People often use a bike in Europe.
Hat man Ihnen das nicht mitgeteilt? Didn’t they tell you about that?
There are two important indefinite pronouns. They are jemand (someone) and niemand (no one). They are the replacements for unknown or unspecified persons.
Ich habe jemand an der Ecke gesehen. I saw someone on the corner.
Niemand kann es verstehen. No one can understand it.