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- "Sie ist eine Frau."
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The conjugation of the verb "sein". Sie would require sind - as in Sie sind. She would require ist - sie ist (or in this case "SIE IST eine Frau"
Yes, and "Frau" is singular, otherwise it has to be "Frauen" (plural)!
"Sie sind Frauen."
You pronounce the "s" like the "z" in "zoo" and the "ie" like the "ea" in "speak", or you can think that you're saying the word "sea" but with a "z" instead of "s" ! ;)
They do sound the same. And we accept both when you're only given the audio because you can't tell the difference. To be clear though, we don't endorse cannibalism! ;D
In english, "She is a woman" might be said of a teenage girl to indicate maturity. Would "Sie ist enie Frau" ever be used in the same way in German?
I just contacted a native German (still living in Germany) to confirm that German women want to be called Frau after they've grown up. Doesn't matter if they are married or single, they prefer to called Frau.
when you begin a sentence with Sie,how do you differentiate between formal address and otherwise
Well, I'm still on level 3, but I'll try to answer. :D If it's in the beginning of a sentence, "Sie" could mean 3 words : she (sie), they (sie), and you (Sie; singular and formal). From the sentence above "Sie ist eine Frau", I can say the "Sie" means "she"; She is a woman. How do I know? Because it's followed by "ist" (the tobe for "he", "she", "it" in German). It's actually quite easy to remember since it's pronounced like the tobe "is" in English. While for "they" and the formal "you", the tobe is "sind".
To differentiate between the last two, you should look at the context. It's like how you distinguish between the single "you" and the plural "you" in English. For example : "Sie sind ein Mann". I can say the subject of this sentence is singular, because it means "a man". So "Sie" in there means "You" (formal form); You are a man. While in "Sie sind Männer", the subject is plural, because "Männer" is the plural form of Mann. So "Sie" in there means "they"; They are men. Hope it helps. Maybe the native speaker can add more detailed explanation to this? :)
*PS : When it comes to action verbs, I can't distinguish between the two. For example : "You drink water" and "They drink water" can have the same translation in German : Sie trinken Wasser.
