Does "Ist es or es ist" = It is

In your Audio Lesson 2.1 ... The tourist information centre, part of the lesson says "JA, ABER HEUTE IST ES GESCHLOSSEN" "YES BUT TODAY IT IS CLOSED" Therefore I understand it to be that IST ES = IT IS But when Nik breaks it down word for word she says "IST MEANS IS" and "ES means IT" (have a listen and you'll see) Also a few seconds further along when she is explaining the term Geoffnet (I hope my german spelling of open is correct by the way) Paul states "ES IST GEOFFNET" and then NIK translates "IT IS OPEN" So please can you clarify does IST ES = IT IS, or IS IT Thanks Ken.

Hi Ken, I think that I can help you with "es ist." There is an almost ironclad rule in German that the verb should be in the second position in a sentence. That is why it is "heute ist es" - ich bin I am du bist You are er, sie, es ist (he, she, it) is "es" is the third person neuter. sie (she) and er (he). Every noun has a gender. For example, der Hund (the dog) is masculine. Here is a weird one; das Kind (the child) is neuter. So if you are talking about a specific object, it is not always "es" for "it" Die Sonne (the sun) is feminine. Die Sonne scheint (the sun shines) becomes "sie (she) scheint."

One more thing - aber is a conjunction. the 2nd position rule does not apply to conjunctions. you would say "aber es ist" there are some other screwy position rules, like "weil" (because). I won't get into that right now, because it will really confuse you.

Thanks Wendy I think I get the jist of that, but it still seems quite complicated, I will keep practicing and im sure the clouds of confusion will slowly start to clear :) Regards Ken.