Pronouns
Six Cases | Personal | Accusative and Dative Personal Pronouns | Ich | It | Reflexive | Reflexive Verbs | Dative Reflexive | Reciprocal Pronouns | Relative | Interrorgative | Indefinite | Man | Jemand and Niemand | Demonstrative
A prounoun stands in for a noun in a sentence. They aren't very complicated to use but there are many cases of pronouns. Here you will learn what the different cases are and see some examples. The next lesson will deal with the use of the pronouns.
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Here are the half a dozen cases:
Personal - I, you, us
Reflexive - themselves, myself
Relative - which, who
Interrogative - what? whose?
Indefinite - one, something
Demonstrative - this, that one
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Personal Pronouns:
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Singular
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Nom.
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ich I
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du you
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Sie you
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er he
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sie her
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es it
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Acc
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mich me
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dich you
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Sie you
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ihn him
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sie her
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es it
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Gen.
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meiner mine
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deiner yours
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Ihrer yours
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seiner his
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ihrer hers
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seiner its
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Dat.
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mir to me
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dir to you
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Ihnen to you
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ihm to him
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ihr to her
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ihm to it
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Plural
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Nom.
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wir we
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ihr you
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Sie you
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sie they
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Acc
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uns us
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euch you
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Sie you
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sie them
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Gen.
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unser ours
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euer yours
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Ihrer yours
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ihrer theirs
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Dat.
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uns to us
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euch to you
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Ihnen to you
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ihnen to them
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Note: Sie is formal you. Du and ihr are only used with people that you are familiar with, such as friends and family. Use the formal one with strangers and people that you must show respect to such as teachers.
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Accusative and dative forms of personal pronouns are used when these are direct and indirect objects:
When one is a pronoun and the other a noun the direct object comes first:
Wir gaben es ihm. - We gave it to him.
When one is anoun and one a pronoun the pronoun comes first no matter what case it is:
Sie schickt es ihrem Freund. - She sent it to her friend.
Er bringt mir gute Nachrichten. - He brings me good news.
When both are nouns the indirect object comes first:
Ich gebe meiner Frau den Ring. - I'm giving the ring to my wife.
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| Ich only has a capital letter when it starts a sentence: Das sage ich ihr immer. - I'm always telling her that.
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It is not always es. It can be sie, er, ihn, ihr, or ihm depending on the gender of the noun it stands for and the role in the sentence.
Es is used with sein to represent the subject and is also used where English would use it is:
Es ist meine Schwester. - It is my sister.
Es sind meine Freunde. - It's my friends.
Ich bin es. - It's me.
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| Reflexive Pronouns: when the recipient of the action is also the doer (ex: He hurt himself). The accusative and dative personal pronouns are used except in the third person singular and plural and formal. These use sich.
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German has certain verbs which are reflexive:
sich verabschieben - to take ones leave.
Sich represents that you need to use a reflexive pronoun.
Ich muß mich benehmen. - I must behave.
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German has certain verbs which are reflexive:
sich verabschieben - to take ones leave.
Sich represents that you need to use a reflexive pronoun.
Ich muß mich benehmen. - I must behave.
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Sometimes the pronoun will be dative:
Ich muß mich schnell waschen. - I must take a quick wash.
Ich muß mir die Hände waschen. - I must wash my hands.
The reflexive is dative because the direct object of the verb is hands.
Das kann ich mir vorstellen. - I can imagine it.
The reflexive pronoun will always be dative with the verb to imagine something.
Bitte setzen Sie sich! - Please sit down.
Wir müssen uns beeilen. - We must hurry
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Reflexive pronouns can also be used as reciprocal pronouns to mean eachother:
Ich glaube, Sie kennen sich schon. - I believe you know eachother already.
Wir haben uns schon früher gesprochen. - We have already spoken together.
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Relative Pronouns: one which begins a relative clause, beginning with who, whom, whose, which or that (ex: This is the book that she gave me). In English we omitt the relative pronoun, but it must never be omitted in German, and must always be seperated by commas.
Use der and welcher:
Genitive singular der and welcher become masculine and neuter dessen and feminine deren.
Genitive and dative plurals become genitive deren and dative denen and welchen:
Das Buch, das ich lese, ist sehr lang. - The book I am reading is very long.
Der Freund, den ich besuchte, war krank. - The friend whom I visited was ill.
Die Frau, deren Sohn ich kenne, hat mich besucht. - The lady whose son I know visited me.
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Interrogative Pronouns: those which ask a question. Wer (who?), was (what?), welcher (which?), and was für (what sort of?).
Was and was für do not decline.
Welcher declines like dieser.
Wer is as follows:
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Nom.
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wer?
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who?
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Acc.
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wen?
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whom?
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Gen.
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wessen?
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whose?
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Dat.
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wem?
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to whom?
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Wer ist da? - Who is there?
Wem sagt er das? - To whom is he speaking?
Was für ein Ding ist das? - What sort of thing is that?
Welcher ist der Chef? - Which is the boss?
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Indefinite Pronouns: adjectives and adverbs used as indefinite pronouns, these include alles, viel(e), wenig(e). Some are indeclinable and cause no problems:
Ich habe nichts zu essen gehabt. - I have had nothing to eat.
Three which do decline are man (one), jemand (someone), niemand (nobody).
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Man also means they, you, or people. It uses man only in nominative, einen is used for accusative, and einem for dative:
Man sagt, wir werden schlechtes Wetter haben. - They say bad weather is on the way.
Man weiß nie, ob er einen erkannt hat. - You never know if he's recognized you.
Die Luft hier tut einem gut. - The air here does you good.
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Jemand and niemand have an -en ending for accusative and -em ending for dative. It is adivisable though to omit these. You must however use the genitive ending -(e)s:
Jemand hat die Tür geschlossen. - Someone has closed the door.
Ich sehe jemand(en) draußen. - I can see someone outside.
Ich werde es niemand(em) sagen. - I shall tell nobody.
Ich höre jemand(e)s Stimme. - I hear someone's voice.
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Demonstrative Pronouns: words which are used more in spoken than written German. All der words may be used as demonstrative pronouns, they take the same gender of the noun they are replacing.
Der ist der richtige Mensch! - He's the right man!
Den kann ich nicht leiden. - I can't stand that man.
Ich hatte dieses vergessen. - I had forgotten that.
Jener gefällt mir besser. - I like that one more.
Jener muß helfen. - Everyone must help.
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