Jul 16, 2013 - 09:44 AM
This can be complicated, as "Sie/sie" has several different meanings. If you wish to use the formal form of "you" (German, like many other languages, has two different words for "you" - one for family, close friends, little children and animals (the informal form) and one for everybody else (formal form). The formal form of "you" in German is "Sie" and it is ALWAYS capitalized, even if it is not the first word of a sentence. (The familiar/informal form is "du", but you're not very likely to be using it soon.) The lower-case "sie" can mean either "she" or "they" (the verb ending tells you which meaning). What gets complicated is when "Sie/sie" is the first word of a sentence, and - like in English - is capitalzed. For instance, "Sie ist schön." The only way that you can tell that "Sie" means "She" in this case is to look at the verb "ist", which is used for the 3rd person, singular. However, "Sie sind schön." can mean "You" (formal form) are pretty OR "They are pretty." In this case, you have to get the meaning from the context.