Polyglot Dictionary

man

/man/

pronoun A2

der (masc.) die (fem.) das (neut.)

Underline = a spelling pattern that usually signals that gender.

Pron Register Neutral Era Current Frequency Core Domain General Tone Neutral

Meaning

  1. one, you, people (impersonal, generic subject)

    Only ever the grammatical subject, and only ever in this one form — no accusative or dative version exists. Extremely common in instructions and generalisations, where English often reaches for "you" or a passive.

    • Man kann hier gut essen.

      The food is good here. (One/you can eat well here.)

Similar words

Mann

Identical pronunciation, completely different word: Mann (capitalised, with two n's) means "man" the person. man (lowercase, one n) is the impersonal pronoun — easy to mix up in writing, never in meaning once you see them side by side.

Practice

1 What does man mean?

2 Fill the gap: ___ kann hier gut essen.

3 Which fingerprint chart matches man?

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