Learn Dutch: De man is hier. - The man is here.

Dutch has two words for the English word the: de and het. Nouns in Dutch belong to different gender categories. Man is a common noun, so it uses de. A handy tip: words for people almost always use de.

Is the Dutch word is the same as in English?

Yes, it looks and means exactly the same! It is the form of the verb zijn (to be) that we use for he, she, and it. Because de man acts as a he (hij), we use is.

If I want to replace de man with a pronoun, which one do I use?

You would use hij (he). If you swap it in, the sentence becomes Hij is hier (He is here). The verb is stays the same because both de man and hij take the same verb form.

How do I pronounce the vowels in hier?

The ie combination in Dutch makes an ee sound, very similar to the e in the English word me. So hier sounds almost exactly like the English word here!