German Question: Is it correct to refer to a female dog with 'Sie'?z.B.,Ich habe einen Hund. Sie heißt...

Answer 1

I had the same question when I lived in Germany.
When referring to the dog, it is der Hund, er hat irgandwas gemacht... etc. But refer to the dog by name, it is feminine. (Our dog's name was Kiera). Was hat die Kiera gemacht?

So, Ich habe ein (masculine) Hund. Sie hiesst Kiera und ist drei Jarhe alt. Er hat mein Bein gebissen wiel er wuetent ist. (Hopefully she has not bit you in the leg!)

Answer 2

Gender of a noun refers to the word, and is independent of the gender of the person or animal that it represents. Since the pronoun refers to the noun "der Hund", you must use "er". If you were to say "eine Hundin", then you could (and indeed, must,) say "sie", but I'm not sure that that is allowed for non-human nouns, as it is allowed for nouns such as Artzt, Freund, etc.

I'd just go with "ein Hund - er ist".

Even after taking German for six years, I still think this is an interesting question, worthy of a thumbs up.

Answer 3

When you are using the pronoun, you are using it to replace a noun. The noun in this case is Hund, so you should replace it with a pronoun of the same gender.

Answer 4

Ja!