Learn German: Das Kind ist hier.

In German, every noun has a grammatical gender: masculine, feminine, or neuter. The word Kind (child) is neuter, so we use the neuter word for "the", which is das.

Why does the sentence use ist?

ist means "is". It is the form of the verb sein (to be) that we use for a single person or thing (he, she, or it). Because das Kind is a single subject, we use the matching verb form ist.

If I want to replace das Kind with a pronoun to say "It is here," which pronoun do I use?

You would use es. In German, pronouns must match the gender of the noun they replace. Since das Kind is a neuter noun (shown by the article das), you use the neuter pronoun es to say Es ist hier.

Why is Kind capitalized in the middle of the sentence?

In German, all nouns (words for people, places, things, or concepts) are always capitalized, no matter where they appear in a sentence.