When is "die" used instead of "sie" as a pronoun?
I've started to notice this as my German progresses. For example, I was chatting with a friend yesterday and we were complaining about Deutsche Bahn's billing service, and he said "die sind echt Scheisse"

I understand the sentence perfectly, but why would you use die instead of sie here?

Question

When is "die" used instead of "sie" as a pronoun?
I've started to notice this as my German progresses.  For example, I was chatting with a friend yesterday and we were complaining about Deutsche Bahn's billing service, and he said "die sind echt Scheisse"

I understand the sentence perfectly, but why would you use die instead of sie here?

Answer

Wir sagen oft "die" anstatt "sie", um mehr Distanz zu schaffen. "Die" klingt oft auch weniger respektvoll als "sie". "Die" klingt auch weniger förmlich.

Zum Beispiel:
A: "Die Vermieterin ist am Telefon."
B: "Was will sie denn?"
=> Das klingt neugierig. Und es klingt, als hätte B kein Problem mit der Vermieterin.

A: "Die Vermieterin ist am Telefon."
B: "Was will die denn?"
=> B klingt etwas genervt. Wenn die Vermieterin anruft, ist das nicht gut.

Answer

In general, you can use articles (stressed when speaking) as demonstrative pronouns. In strength, there are somewhere in between pronouns and "dieser" etc.

Answer

Hm, schwierig zu erklären, aber ich vermute dein Kollege hat in diesem Kontext von dem Personal dieser Firma gesprochen ("die sind"  = Plural), und nicht von der Firma an sich gesprochen (hier hätte er sonst "sie ist" oder "diese Firma ist", also "sein" im Singular verwendet).
Ich hoffe das hilft dir zumindest ein wenig weiter...

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