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Questions & Answers about Er ist der Mann.
Why do we use er in this sentence?
Er is the German word for "he". We use it here as the subject pronoun because we are talking about a male person.
What is the base form of the verb ist?
Ist comes from the verb sein, which means "to be". Just like in English (where "to be" becomes "is" for "he"), this verb is very irregular. For er, sie, and es (he, she, and it), the correct form is always ist.
Why is it der Mann and not die or das?
In German, every noun belongs to one of three grammatical genders: masculine, feminine, or neuter. Mann (man) is a masculine noun, so the word for "the" is der.
Since der Mann comes after the verb, isn't it the object of the sentence?
No, and this is a very important rule! The verb sein (to be) acts like an equals sign (Er = der Mann). Because of this, it connects two things that are the same rather than acting on a direct object. Both sides stay in the "default" subject form, which is called the nominative case.