Breakdown of Liest du es dem Mann vor?
der Mann
the man
du
you (informal singular)
es
it
vorlesen
to read aloud
Questions & Answers about Liest du es dem Mann vor?
Why does es come before dem Mann?
This showcases our current rule for double objects. When a sentence has an accusative pronoun like es and a dative noun like dem Mann, the accusative pronoun must always come first. It would be incorrect to put the dative noun first here.
Why is vor at the very end of the sentence?
The full verb here is vorlesen, which means to read aloud. It is a separable verb. In direct questions like this one, the prefix vor splits off from the conjugated verb liest and gets pushed to the very end of the clause.
Why do we use dem Mann instead of den Mann?
The person receiving the action (the one being read to) is the indirect object, which requires the dative case. Because Mann is a masculine noun, its article changes to the dative dem. The thing actually being read is the direct object es, which is in the accusative case.
Why is the verb spelled liest with an ie?
The base verb lesen is a strong verb that has a stem-vowel change. When conjugated for du or er/sie/es, the vowel e changes to ie, giving us du liest.