German Personal Pronoun

German Personal Pronouns

Personalpronomen I (Nominativ)

German Personal Pronouns: A pronoun in German as well as in English is like a shortcut to refer to a noun, a word that stands for or represents a noun or noun phrase, a pronoun is identified only in the context of the sentence in which it is used. So you must have a prior idea about who “he or she” “er or sie” is. In English we find “I, her, what, that, his”, In German pronouns use is governed by cases (nominative, accusative, dative, genitive), number and gender. All these three factors can affect the pronoun. Types of pronouns include personal pronouns (refer to the persons speaking, the persons spoken to, or the persons or things spoken about), indefinite pronouns, relative (connect parts of sentences), reciprocal or reflexive pronouns (in which the object of a verb is being acted on by verb’s subject), demonstrative, and interrogative pronouns. The personal (subject) pronouns in German are (ich, du, er, sie, es, wir, ihr, Sie, sie.), and make the equivalent of (I, you, he, she, it, we, you people, you all, they) in English, usually they take the nominative form, since they’re the subject of the sentence. They’re very important and therefore they must be memorized by heart. I have a pen = Ich habe einen Kugelschreiber.

Personal Pronouns in German
Singular
I	ich
you (familiar)	du
you (formal)	Sie
he, she, it	er, sie, es
Plural
we	wir
you (familiar)	ihr
you (formal)	Sie
they	sie

German Pronoun

German Personal Pronouns

The personal (subject) pronouns in German are (ich, du, er, sie, es, wir, ihr, Sie, sie.), and make the equivalent of (I, you, he, she, it, we, you people, you all, they) in English, usually they take the nominative form, since they’re the subject of the sentence. They’re very important and therefore they must be memorized by heart.

Present simple (Präsens Indikativ)

Conjugation	Meaning
ich bin	I am
du bist	you are
er ist sie ist es ist	he is she is it is
wir sind	we are
ihr seid	you are
sie sind	they are

Examples:

Ich bin elf Jahre alt I am eleven years old

Wie ist dein Name? What is your name?

Ich bin Frank I am Frank

Was sind Sie von Beruf? What’s your profession?

Ich bin Kellnerin I’m a waitress

Es ist zwei Uhr It’s two o’clock

Wir sind zufrieden We are content

Es kann nicht sein It can’t beMemorizing this German pronoun chart doesn’t help much unless you use it in your own words. The German lessons mentioned above are full of examples of daily use. Here are some examples explaining the usage of above pronouns.

• Ich bin Peter (I am Peter)
• Du bist Peter  (You are Peter)
• Sie sind Peter (You are Peter)
• Er ist Peter (He is Peter)
• Sie ist Monika  (She is Monika)
• Es ist Tommy (It is Tommy)
• Wir sind Amerikaner (We are American)
• Ihr seid Amerikaner (You are American)
• Sie sind Amerikaner (They are American)

You must have noticed in the above sentences that each German pronoun comes with a different “Be-verb”. Like, “Ich-Bin”, “Du-Bist”, “Er ist”etc. This is very similar to English “I-am”,”You-are” and “He-is” respectively. A particular German pronoun is always followed by a particular German Be-verb. This is called subject-verb agreement. Subject-verb agreement exist in all languages and German language is no exception. The following chart shows German pronouns and their possessive form but please learn them through the lessons mentioned above instead of memorizing this chart. This chart is here only for the purpose of providing a summary of possessive form of German pronouns.

German Object Pronouns

Object pronouns replace the object of a sentence; direct object pronouns take the place of the direct object nouns, let’s take this example “I see a man”, “a man” can be replaced in English by the direct object pronoun “him” and not “he”, so it would be “I see him”, the same thing happens in German: Ich sehe einen Mann becomes Ich sehe ihn. Note that the direct object pronoun in German is associated with the accusative case:

Direct Object Pronouns in German
Singular
me	mich
you (familiar)	dich
you (formal)	Sie
him, her, it	ihn, sie, es
Plural
us	uns
you (familiar)	euch
you (formal)	Sie
them	sie

The indirect object pronouns (IOP) are used to replace nouns (people or things) in a sentence to which the action of the verb occurs. In English usually it is preceded by a preposition, “I give the book to Katja”, the name “Katja” is an indirect object noun, to replace it with a pronoun we would say in English “her”, in German we would say “ihr”, note that since the IOP is associated with thedative, the preposition “to” that we would usually use in English is not used in German, or rather we would say that it’s mixed with the pronoun (look at the table below to understand the concept better), for example “to her” in German will become one word “ihr”.

Indirect Object Pronouns in German
Singular
to me	mir
to you (familiar)	dir
to you (familiar)	Ihnen
to him, to her, to it	ihm, ihr, ihm
Plural
to us	uns
to you (familiar)	euch
to you (formal)	Ihnen
to them	ihnen

German Personal Pronouns: The nominative personal pronouns are one of the first things to learn in German as they are the basics to form our first sentences. One interesting fact about German is that the formal way of writing “you” is “Sie” and it is always capitalized.

Nominative		Accusative		Dative		Genitive
ich	I	mich	me	mir	me, to me	meiner	mine
du	you	dich	you	dir	you, to you	deiner	yours
er	he	ihn	him	ihm	him,to him	seiner	his
sie	she	sie	her	ihr	her, to her	ihrer	hers
es	it	es	it	ihm	it, to it	seiner	its
wir	we	uns	us	uns	us, to us	unser	ours
ihr	you	euch	you	euch	you, to you	euer	yours
sie Sie	they you (formal)	sie Sie	them you (formal)	ihnen Ihnen	to them to you (formal)	ihrer Ihrer	theirs yours (formal)

What is a pronoun? A pronoun is – as the word says – to substitute a noun. In a position pro- (for) noun. Have a look.

	Singular	Plural
1. PERSON	ich	wir
2. PERSON	du Sie (Höflichkeitsform)	ihr Sie (Höflichkeitsform)
3. PERSON	er (maskulin) sie (feminin) es (neutrum)	sie

Konjugation Präsens I

	Singular	Plural
1. PERSON	ich geh-e	wir geh-en
2. PERSON	du geh-st Sie geh-en	ihr geh-t Sie geh-en
3. PERSON	er geh-t sie geh-t es geh-t	sie geh-en

Konjugation Präsens II (sein)

	Singular	Plural
1. PERSON	ich bin	wir sind
2. PERSON	du bist Sie sind	ihr seid Sie sind
3. PERSON	er ist sie ist es ist	sie sind

Konjugation Präsens III (haben)

	Singular	Plural
1. PERSON	ich habe	wir haben
2. PERSON	du hast Sie haben	ihr habt Sie haben
3. PERSON	er hat sie hat es hat	sie haben

4.2 Personal Pronouns in Basic Form (Nominative)

What is a pronoun? A pronoun is – as the word says – to substitute a noun. In a position pro- (for) noun. Have a look. Germans drink too much beer. we can also say They drink too much beer.   pronouns ich I du you er he sie she es it wir we ihr you sie they You might have heard before that one of the crazy things in German language is that everything has a gender, even though it might be just a thing. They can be feminine, masculine or neutral. And then there is absolutely no logic in this issue. For instance is the German baby a neutral. Das Kind schläft. = The baby sleeps Es schläft. = It sleeps. But there are other weird combinations, too. Der Tisch ist braun. (masculine) = The table is brown. Er ist braun. = He (It) is brown.Das Haus ist grün (neutrum) = The house is green. Es ist grün. = It is green.Die Tasse ist gelb. (feminine) = The cup is yellow Sie ist gelb. = She (it) is yellow.     Things only get easier in plural forms because there is no difference between the genders of the words. Die Frauen lesen. = The women are reading. Sie lesen = They are reading. Die Männer lesen. = The men are reading. Sie lesen = They are reading. Die Babys lesen. = The babies are reading. Sie lesen = They are reading. One big step is to learn the personal pronouns because you will need them a lot. A conjugation is the change of the verb according to the subject. For this endings (suffixes) are appended to the stem of the verb. First question is What is the stem? Well, it’s the root without the endings.

German Conjugation – Weak Verbs A conjugation is the change of the verb according to the subject. For this endings (suffixes) are appended to the stem of the verb. First question is What is the stem? Well, it’s the root without the endings. German verbs in basic form always have the ending -en. That means that you take away the -en and you have the stem of the verb. Then you take the right suffix to append it to the verb and you have a perfect conjugation: infinitive       bringen trinken sagen kaufen translation to bring to drink to say to buy stem / root bring trink sag kauf ich bring–e (I bring) trink-e sag-e kauf-e du bring–st (you bring) trink-st sag-st kauf-st er bring–t (he brings) trink-t sag-t kauf-t sie bring–t (she brings) trink-t sag-t kauf-t es bring–t (it brings) trink-t sag-t kauf-t wir bring–en (we bring) trink-en sag-en kauf-en ihr bring–t (you bring) trink-t sag-t kauf-t sie bring–en (they bring) trink-en sag-en kauf-en infinitive          bringen weinen lachen schwimmen translation to bring to cry to laugh to swim stem / root bring wein lach schwimm ich bring–e (I bring) wein-e lach-e schwimm-e du bring–st (you bring) wein-st lach-st schwimm-st er bring–t (he brings) wein-t lach-t schwimm-t sie bring–t (she brings) wein-t lach-t schwimm-t es bring–t (he brings) wein-t lach-t schwimm-t wir bring–en (we bring) wein-en lach-en

Personal pronouns

The nominative personal pronouns are one of the first things to learn in German as they are the basics to form our first sentences. One interesting fact about German is that the formal way of writing “you” is “Sie” and it is always capitalized.

Nominative		Accusative		Dative		Genitive
ich	I	mich	me	mir	me, to me	meiner	mine
du	you	dich	you	dir	you, to you	deiner	yours
er	he	ihn	him	ihm	him,to him	seiner	his
sie	she	sie	her	ihr	her, to her	ihrer	hers
es	it	es	it	ihm	it, to it	seiner	its
wir	we	uns	us	uns	us, to us	unser	ours
ihr	you	euch	you	euch	you, to you	euer	yours
sie Sie	they you (formal)	sie Sie	them you (formal)	ihnen Ihnen	to them to you (formal)	ihrer Ihrer	theirs yours (formal)

The third person singular is formed with “er” (he), “sie” (she) and “es” (it).

Ich singe ein Lied für dich I am singing a song for you

Ich habe dir eine Email geschickt I have sent you an e-mail

The current use of genitive pronouns in German is rare and sounds old (Often, it’s substituted by dative pronouns):

Ich will dir statt seiner einen Kuss geben (old form with genitive) Ich will dir statt ihm einen Kuss geben (modern form with Dative) I want to give you a kiss and not him.

Possessive Pronouns

The possessive pronouns in German are:

	German	English
1 Person Sing.	mein	my
2 Person Sing.	dein	your
3 Person Sing.	sein ihr sein	his her its
1 Person Plural	unser	our
2 Person Plural	euer	your
3 Person Plural	ihr	their

Unfortunately, the possessive pronouns are declined and, this has always been a bit confusing. Let’s try and make this clear. There are 3 declensions depending on the function of the pronoun:

• Attributive (possessive pronoun that comes before a noun) or determiner
• Not attributive without article
• Not attributive with article

Attributive or determiner

This is when the possessive pronoun comes before a noun:

Mein Name ist Helmut My name is Helmut

	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	mein /dein sein/ihr/sein unser/euer/ihr	meine /deine seine/ihre/seine unsere/eure/ihre	mein /dein sein/ihr/sein unser/euer/ihr	meine /deine seine/ihre/seine unsere/eure/ihre
Accusative	meinen /deinen seinen/ihren/seinen unseren/euren/ihren	meine /deine seine/ihre/seine unsere/eure/ihre	mein /dein sein/ihr/sein unser/euer/ihr	meine /deine seine/ihre/seine unsere/eure/ihre
Dative	meinem /deinem seinem/ihrem/seinem unserem/eurem/ihrem	meiner /deiner seiner/ihrer/seiner unserer/eurer/ihrer	meinem /deinem seinem/ihrem/seinem unserem/eurem/ihrem	meinen /deinen seinen/ihren/seinen unseren/euren/ihren
Genitive	meines /deines seines/ihres/seines unseres/eures/ihres	meiner/deiner seiner/ihrer/seiner unserer/eurer/ihrer	meines/deines seines/ihres/seines unseres/eures/ihres	meiner /deiner seiner/ihrer/seiner unserer/ eurer/ihrer

Not attributive without article

When the possessive pronoun does not accompany a noun or an article:

Der Kuli ist meiner The pen is mine

	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	meiner /deiner seiner/ihrer/seiner unserer/eurer/ihrer	meine /deine seine/ihre/seine unsere/eure/ihre	meines/deines seines/ihres/seines unseres/eures/ihres	meine /deine seine/ihre/seine unsere/eure/ihre
Accusative	meinen /deinen seinen/ihren/seinen unseren/euren/ihren	meine /deine seine/ihre/seine unsere/eure/ihre	meines/deines seines/ihres/seines unseres/eures/ihres	meine /deine seine/ihre/seine unsere/eure/ihre
Dative	meinem /deinem seinem/ihrem/seinem unserem/eurem/ihrem	meiner /deiner seiner/ihrer/seiner unserer/eurer/ihrer	meinem /deinem seinem/ihrem/seinem unserem/eurem/ihrem	meinen /deinen seinen/ihren/seinen unseren/euren/ihren
Genitive	meines /deines seines/ihres/seines unseres/eures/ihres	meiner/deiner seiner/ihrer/seiner unserer/eurer/ihrer	meines/deines seines/ihres/seines unseres/eures/ihres	meiner /deiner seiner/ihrer/seiner unserer/ eurer/ihrer

Not attributive with article

When the possessive pronoun is accompanied by an article:

Ein Kuli ist der meine A pen is mine

	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	meine /deine seine/ihre/seine unsere/eure/ihre	meine /deine seine/ihre/seine unsere/eure/ihre	meine /deine seine/ihre/seine unsere/eure/ihre	meinen /deinen seinen/ihren/seinen unseren/euren/ihren
Accusative	meinen /deinen seinen/ihren/seinen unseren/euren/ihren	meine /deine seine/ihre/seine unsere/eure/ihre	meine /deine seine/ihre/seine unsere/eure/ihre	meinen /deinen seinen/ihren/seinen unseren/euren/ihren
Dative	meinen /deinen seinen/ihren/seinen unseren/euren/ihren	meinen /deinen seinen/ihren/seinen unseren/euren/ihren	meinen /deinen seinen/ihren/seinen unseren/euren/ihren	meinen /deinen seinen/ihren/seinen unseren/euren/ihren
Genitive	meinen /deinen seinen/ihren/seinen unseren/euren/ihren	meinen /deinen seinen/ihren/seinen unseren/euren/ihren	meinen /deinen seinen/ihren/seinen unseren/euren/ihren	meinen /deinen seinen/ihren/seinen unseren/euren/ihren

Reflexive pronouns

Just like in English, in some cases, reflexive verbs need a reflexive pronoun to complete the meaning of the verb (Example: I dressed myself)

Ich erinnere mich nicht I don’t remember

	Accusative	Dative
1 Person Sing.	mich	mir
2 Person Sing.	dich	dir
3 Person Sing.	sich	sich
1 Person Plural	uns	uns
2 Person Plural	euch	euch
2 Person Plural	sich	sich

Demonstrative pronouns

The following demonstrative pronouns exist in German:

• der, die, das (that one)
• dieser (this one)
• jener (that one)
• derjenige (that)
• derselbe (the same one)

These pronouns are declined according to the gender, number and the case of the noun they refer to:

Diese Frau ist Sängerin This woman is a singer

This picture shows the demonstrative pronouns “der”, “die” and “das”:

	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	der	die	das	die
Accusative	den	die	das	die
Dative	dem	der	dem	denen
Genitive	dessen	deren	dessen	deren

The pronouns “der”, “dieser” and “jener” have a strong declension:

Strong declension	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	dieser	diese	dieses/dies	diese
Accusative	diesen	diese	dieses/dies	diese
Dative	diesem	dieser	diesem	diesen
Genitive	dieses	dieser	dieses	dieser

The pronouns “derjenige”, “derselbe” are both declined “der” with the strong declension and “jenige/selbe” with the weak one:

Strong declension + Weak declension	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	derselbe	dieselbe	dasselbe	dieselben
Accusative	denselben	dieselbe	dasselbe	dieselben
Dative	demselben	derselben	demselben	denselben
Genitive	desselben	derselben	desselben	derselben

Indefinite Pronouns

The main indefinite pronouns are:

• alle (all)
• andere (other)
• beide (both)
• einige (some)
• ein bisschen (a bit)
• ein paar (a couple)
• jeder (each)
• jemand (someone)
• kein (none)
• man (one)
• mancher (some)
• mehrere (several)
• niemand (no one)

alle

This generally has a strong declension and is almost always used in the plural

Strong declension	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	aller	alle	alles	alle
Accusative	allen	alle	alles	alle
Dative	allem	aller	allem	allen
Genitive	alles/allen*	aller	alles/allen*	aller

Hamburger mit allem Hamburger with everything

But if it comes before a:

• definite article
• possessive pronoun
• demonstrative pronoun

It is not declined and it is written in its non-changing form all.

andere

Depending on the particle that comes before it, it has a declension:

• Without article ➜ Strong declension.

Auf dem Tisch steht eine Flasche Wein und eine Flasche mit anderem Inhalt There’s a bottle of wine on the table and a bottle with other contents

Er lebt jetzt mit anderem Namen in Mexiko He lives in Mexico now with another name

• Indefinite article or possessive pronouns ➜ Mixed declension.

Mein anderer Hund ist groß My other dog is big

• Definite article ➜ Weak declension.

Ich habe ein Stück Torte genommen, die anderen hat Michael gegessen I took a piece of cake. Michael ate the other ones

beide

Usually “beide” is only used in the plural:

	Strong declension (plural)	Mixed declension (plural)	Weak declension (plural)
Nominative	beide	beiden	beiden
Accusative	beide	beiden	beiden
Dative	beiden	beiden	beiden
Genitive	beider	beiden	beiden

To find out which declension to use, check out the example of andere.

Wir haben zwei Kinder, und beide sind so unterschiedlich We have two children, and both are so different

Examples of the 3 declensions:

Beide Arme nach oben Both arms up (strong)

Meine beiden Arme Both my arms (mixed)

Die beiden Arme Both arms (weak)

einige

It only has a strong declension:

Haus mit einigem Luxus House with (some) luxury

Strong declension	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	einiger	einige	einiges	einige
Accusative	einigen	einige	einiges	einige
Dative	einigem	einiger	einigem	einigen
Genitive	einiges	einiger	einiges	einiger

ein bisschen

It is correct to decline “ein bisschen” as well as leave it unchanged:

Mit ein bisschen Glück With a bit of luck

Mit einem bisschen Glück With a bit of luck

ein paar

“Ein paar” never changes:

Mit ein paar Freunden With a couple of friends

jeder

Usually, “jeder” only is used in the singular and its declension is strong:

Der Morgen kommt nach jeder Nacht The morning arrives after every night

Strong declension	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Nominative	jeder	jede	jedes
Accusative	jeden	jede	jedes
Dative	jedem	jeder	jedem
Genitive	jedes/jeden*	jeder	jedes/jeden*

jemand

“jemand” is only used in the singular and it doesn’t depend on the gender. It’s correct to decline it as well as to leave it unchanged.

Jemand kommt Someone’s coming

Strong declension	Singular
Nominative	jemand
Accusative	jemand jemanden
Dative	jemand jemandem
Genitive	jemands jemandes

kein

There are 2 declensions depending on “kein”‘s function:

• Attributive
• Not attributive without article

Attributive Attributive When the pronoun “kein” comes before a noun

Ich habe keine Lampe I don’t have any lamp

	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	kein	keine	kein	keine
Accusative	keinen	keine	kein	keine
Dative	keinem	keiner	keinem	keinen
Genitive	keines	keiner	keines	keiner

Not attributive without article When the pronoun does not accompany a noun

Hast du ein Auto? Nein, ich habe keines Do you have a car? No, I don’t have one

	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	keiner	keine	keines	keine
Accusative	keinen	keine	keines	keine
Dative	keinem	keiner	keinem	keinen
Genitive	keines	keiner	keines	keiner

man

“man” does not change and it is only used in the nominative to make impersonal phrases.

Man kann nie wissen You never know

Sentences with the pronoun “man” are an alternative way to form the passive voice.

mancher

“mancher” has a strong declension.

Manche Autos verbrauchen weniger als 3 Liter Some cars consume less than 3 liters

Strong declension	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	mancher	manche	manches	manche
Accusative	manchen	manche	manches	manche
Dative	manchem	mancher	manchem	manchen
Genitive	manches / manchen*	mancher	manches / manchen*	mancher

mehrere

“mehrere” is only used in the plural:

In mehreren Sprachen In several languages

Strong declension	Plural
Nominative	mehrere
Accusative	mehrere
Dative	mehreren
Genitive	mehrerer

niemand

“niemand” is used only in the singular and does not depend on the gender. It’s correct to decline it as well as to leave it unchanged.

Niemand ist schuld No one is guilty

Strong declension	Singular
Nominative	niemand
Accusative	niemand niemanden
Dative	niemand niemandem
Genitive	niemands niemandes

Forming the masculine and neuter genitive “-en” instead of using “-es”

The indefinite pronouns “alle”, “jeder”, “mancher”, etc (strong declension) form the genitive sometimes with “-en” instead of “-es”. This has a logical explanation: Most masculine or neuter nouns add an “-s” already when forming the genitive.

Die Meinung manches Lesers The opinion of some reader

That is why adding “-en” instead of “-es” is the preferred choice in many cases.

Die Meinung manchen Lesers

It is important to emphasize that if the noun does not add an “-s” in the genitive (for example, the nouns with N-declension), the genitive of pronouns is formed only with “-es”.

Die Meinung manches Kunden The opinion of some client

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