Learn German: Der Mann ist hier und die Frau ist da. - The man is here and the woman is there.

In German, every noun has a grammatical gender, and the word for 'the' changes to match it. Mann (man) is a masculine noun, so it uses the masculine article der. Frau (woman) is a feminine noun, so it takes the feminine article die.

Why is the verb ist used for both the man and the woman?

ist is the form of the verb sein (to be) that we use for 'he', 'she', and 'it'. Because 'the man' (he) and 'the woman' (she) are both singular subjects, they both use ist.

If we wanted to use pronouns instead, how would we change this sentence?

You would say: Er ist hier und sie ist da. You replace the masculine noun der Mann with the pronoun er (he), and the feminine noun die Frau with sie (she).

I have sometimes seen da translated as 'here'. Why does it mean 'there' in this sentence?

The word da is very flexible and can mean either 'here' or 'there' depending on the context. However, when it is used in the same sentence as hier (which strictly means 'here'), they are being contrasted. In this pair, hier is 'here' and da becomes 'there'.