German Personal Pronouns

German personal pronouns – or Personalpronomen –are extremely useful for referring to ourselves, other people, objects, feelings and even abstract concepts – in short, they replace the type of word we call a noun and help us avoid repeating ourselves.

For example here: “This is Emma. She is eating an apple’, the personal pronoun ‘she’ replaces the name ‘Emma’ in the second sentence.

By mastering these words, you will be one step closer to understanding German sentences and expressing yourself easily.

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What are German Personal Pronouns

First, let’s look at all the personal pronouns and see how they are used.

The “first person”: ich and wir (I and we)

The pronoun you’ll be using about yourself from the very beginning is the personal pronoun “I” – or them in German. From a grammatical point of view, we call this “first person singular”. When we talk about ourselves and others at the same time, we use the personal pronoun “we” – or in German, wir. This is known as “first person plural”.

Let’s look at a few examples:

• Ich heiße Anna. (My name is Anna.)
• Ich wohne in Dortmund. (I live in Dortmund.)
• Wir kaufen einen Computer. (We buy a computer.)
• Wir wohnen in Duisburg. (We live in Duisburg.)

The “second person”: du, ihr and Sie (you)

The translation of the personal pronoun “you” can be somewhat confusing for English speakers. This is because we have three different personal pronouns, all of which mean “you” in German.

1. First, we use the German personal pronoun du to talk to a single person we know well or to a child.

Example: Kommst du zur Geburtstagsparty? (Are you coming to the birthday party?).

2. To talk to more than one person we know well, or to more than one child at a time, we use the pronoun ihr.

For example, a teacher could ask the class: Habt ihr eure Hausaufgaben gemacht? (Did you [all] do your homework?).

Or, you could ask your friend and his wife: Wohin fahrt ihr diesen Sommer? (Where are you [both] going this summer?).

3. To talk to one or more people in a formal setting, we use Sie – did you notice the capital S?

For example, you could ask: Sind Sie Herr Müller? (Are you Mr. Müller?).

The “third person”: er, sie and es (he, she and it)

At first it might seem that the three English pronouns he/she/it are the same as the German pronouns er/sie/es. However, there is a peculiar quirk in German because, as you may remember, all things have a gender in German.

Therefore, the personal pronoun must always agree with the gender of your noun. In English we would say: “The lamp is broken, it was old”. However, in German, die Lampe (lamp) is feminine, so we say: Die Lampe ist kaputt, sie war alt.

That’s a lot to digest, but the examples below will help:

• Masculine: Der Baum ist alt. (The tree is old.)
  → Er ist alt. (It is old. / “He is old.”)
• Feminine: Die Kirche ist alt. (The church is old.)
  → Sie ist alt. (It is old. / “She is old.”)
• Neuter: Das Buch ist alt. (The book is old.) → Es ist alt. (It is old.)

Important to know: sie can also mean “they” (grammatically this is called “third person plural”). But luckily for you, it doesn’t matter whether you’re talking about masculine, feminine or neuter nouns or plural persons: sie is always correct.

• Die Häuser sind alt. (The houses are old.) → Sie sind alt. (They are old.)
• Die Männer sind jung. (The men are young.) → Sie sind jung. (They are young.)

The double meaning of “she” and “they” can be a bit confusing, but the verb forms that go with them tell us exactly which one is meant. As you’ve probably already noticed, context really matters in German!

Here are some example sentences with different meanings for sie:

• Sie ist traurig. (She is sad).
• Sie sind traurig. (They are sad.)
• Sie kommt aus Ungarn. (She is from Hungary.)
• Sie kommen aus Ungarn. (They are from Hungary.)

Just remember that verb forms come with their own problems, as the formal “you” (Sie) requires the same form as “they” (sie)! You can tell the difference in writing because we always capitalize the formal form “you” Sie:

• Woher kommen sie? (Where are they from?)
• Woher kommen Sie? (Where are you from?)

And in spoken language, you can easily tell if someone is talking to you (or another person) formally, or if they’re talking about people, based on context, tone, and body language.

Types of German Personal Pronouns

1. Personal pronouns (Personalpronomen)
2. Reflexive Pronouns (Reflexivpronomen)
3. Possessive Pronouns (Possessivpronomen)
4. Interrogative Pronouns (Interrogativpronomen)
5. Demonstrative Pronouns (Demonstrativpronomen)

Note: Indefinite pronouns like “nothing” and relative pronouns like “which” and “whose” are fun, but we don’t want to overwhelm you all at once!

Like English, these pronouns must change to show what type of noun they are replacing, such as which person (“he” or “she”) and whether it is singular or plural (“it” or “they”).

However, German pronouns come in a few more variations than English ones, depending on the case (nominative, accusative, etc.), which means there will be several tables to remember. The advantage of using upper and lower case letters is that it allows the word order to be more flexible because it is clear what role each case word plays!

Fortunately, the examples below will help you better recognize when to use different pronouns. Then, memorizing the forms will be easy using technology created specifically for this purpose, such as Entri’s German course.

1. Personal Pronouns

Personal pronouns refer to a person (big surprise). You can use personal pronouns to talk about other people and yourself. These are the words that usually come to mind when you hear “pronouns.” We know that German personal pronouns come in a variety of cases, but English also distinguishes case in this area, so it’s a great place to start easing into pronoun cases.

English personal pronouns occur in two cases: nominative (for the subject of the sentence) and accusative (for the direct object of the sentence).

Nominative: Remember that the subject of the sentence is the person/thing doing the action.

Er aß den Apfel. (He [nominative personal pronoun] ate the apple.)

Accusative: The direct object is the person/thing that the action is directed toward or is receiving the action.

Mein Hund mag ihn. (My dog likes him [accusative personal pronoun].)

Dative: The dative case is most often used for indirect objects. This is a noun that is indirectly affected by an action or receives some action from a direct object rather than a subject. To remember what an indirect object is, remember the verb “to give,” which always requires not only something to be given (direct object), but someone to receive that item (indirect object).

Sie [subject/nominative pronoun] gibt ihm [dative / indirect object pronoun] ein Buch [accusative / direct object pronoun].
(She gives him a book.)

Genitive: In modern German, the genitive forms of personal pronouns are very rarely used, even in formal language.

Wir erinnern uns ihrer. (We remember her.)

Genitive: In modern German, the genitive forms of personal pronouns are used very rarely, even in formal language, so you don’t need to spend time learning them. You can use genitive possessive pronouns when you need to replace a noun that is “owned” with a pronoun.

2. Reflexive Pronouns

Reflexive pronouns are reflected back to the subject of the sentence.

Reflexive pronouns are used with reflexive verbs in the dative and accusative cases. They are used when an action or event “reflects” on yourself, such as washing, showering or shaving. In all these cases, you can imagine using the same verb non-reflexively (someone performing this action on someone else rather than on themselves), so you can see how important it is to specify the reflexive pronoun. The pronoun used here is the word “self”. Fortunately, German only uses the accusative and dative case for reflexive pronouns.

In the simple case, “yourself” is the direct object that receives the action of shaving, so you use the accusative case.

Du rasierst dich [accusative]. (You’re shaving yourself.)

If you include an “object” that is shaving (receiving the action of the verb), you should use the dative case because in this case “you” is the subject, “you” is the entity receiving the action, and “head” is the direct object that is being shaved.

Du rasierst dir [dative] den Kopf. (You’re shaving yourself the head.)

If that’s tricky to get your (shaved?) head around, compare it with the “give” example with the dative earlier:

She [subject / nominative pronoun] gives him [dative / indirect object pronoun] a book [accusative / direct object pronoun].

You [subject / nominative pronoun] shave yourself [dative / indirect object pronoun] the head [accusative / direct object pronoun].

3. Possessive Pronouns

More than simply denoting the owner of an object (e.g., “It’s my dog”), these pronouns completely replace the corresponding noun (“It’s mine”).

Hast du meinen Hund gesehen? (Have you seen my dog?)

In this example, the noun being replaced is Hund.

Ist das deiner? (Is that yours?)

Ja, das ist meiner. (Yes, that is mine.)

Remember that when a noun is still present, we use a possessive adjective (“my”), while when replacing a noun we use a possessive pronoun (“mine”).

Hast du mein Bier gesehen? (Have you seen my beer?)

Das ist deins [Bier=accusative/direct object singular neuter noun]. (That one is yours.)

Notice that the actual pronoun for “yours” is dein, but an -s ending is required because Bier is a neutral noun.

Because nouns in German can have a specific gender, you need to be sure to replace the noun with a pronoun that provides a clear reference back to avoid confusing your audience. For this reason, the tables are separated by uppercase and lowercase letters so that you can clearly see the appropriate pronoun for each gender category. Note that with possessive pronouns, feminine pronouns are the same as plural pronouns of any gender.

You’ll notice that the formal “you” is always the same form as the plural “they” but capitalized.

Nominative:

Das ist nicht mein Koffer, das ist deiner. [nominative, masc., sing.] (That isn’t my suitcase, that is yours.)

Accusative:

Wenn du ein Auto brauchst, kann ich dir mein(e)s ausleihen. [accusative, neut., sing.] (If you need a car, I can lend you mine.)

Dative:

Ich fahre in deinem Wagen. In seinem habe ich immer Angst. [dative, masc., sing.] (I’ll go in your car. I am always frightened in his.)

Genitive:

Ich lese in meinem Buch. Du liest deines. [genitive, neut., sing.] (I read in my book. You read yours.)

4. Interrogative Pronouns

Simply put, interrogative pronouns are words that we use to ask questions about a noun. Like English, German uses specific interrogative pronouns to make it clear what information you expect.

Who [nominative] called? Expected answer: the subject of the sentence, the “doer” of the action

Who [accusative] did you call? Expected answer: direct object, the person to whom the call was directed

To whom [dative] did you give a hug / Who did you give a hug to? Expected answer: indirect object, the person who received the direct object (a hug)

Whose [genitive] party is it? Expected answer: the owner of the party

Although we don’t think the English counterparts have case, they are similar to German in that each type of word precedes a noun that played a role in response to the event. For this reason, apart from the most general pronoun “what”, every interrogative pronoun in German is tied to a specific case.

If you ever have trouble figuring out what role a noun plays in a sentence, and therefore what case, try formulating a question (in English if necessary) to ask about that noun. This can help you clarify whether it is the subject, direct object, indirect object, or possessor.

Was hat sie gesagt? (What did she say?)

Wer [nominative] hat angerufen? (Who called?)

Wen [accusative] haben Sie angerufen? (Who did you call?)

Wem [dative] hast du eine Umarmung gegeben? (To whom did you give a hug?)

Wessen [genitive] Partei ist das? (Whose party is it?)

5. Demonstrative Pronouns

Demonstrative pronouns are used to refer to something in your current visual context or to “demonstrate” which person/thing you mean. In English, the pronouns below are equivalent to “this” and “these”. These pronouns can be your best friend when you’re in a German-speaking country and you haven’t memorized all the relevant nouns yet, as they allow you to easily point to an item you’d like or a dish on the menu. and say:

Ich möchte diese bitte. (I want these, please.)

Declension of dieser, diese, dieses:

German demonstrative adjectives are often used as pronouns (simply by dropping the noun), so you may see der, die, and das also used, but you can start simple by just using the chart above.

Here are some other demonstrative words that can be used as pronouns with the same endings to indicate gender, number, and case.

dies- (this) jen- (that) jeglich- (any) jed- (every) manch- (some) solch- (such) welch- (which) alle(-) (all) beide(-) (both)

Pronouns are very powerful tools for streamlining a conversation, although a lot of them can be memorized. See how much effort you save by using them:

John sagte, dass er das Geschenk dem Mädchen gegeben hat, das Sie auf meiner Geburtstagsfeier getroffen haben. (John said that he gave the gift to the girl that you met at my birthday party.)

vs.

Er sagte, dass er es ihr gegeben hat. (He said that he gave it to her.)

All those milliseconds saved add up over time! By comparing the sentences above, you should feel that you can start saving a lot of time and effort. Since the pronouns are very similar, native speakers will probably know what you mean if you don’t pick the perfect one during practice, so don’t be afraid to try!

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Understanding the Case System in German Personal Pronouns

1. German Nouns Have Genders

The first thing you should know about German nouns is that they have a gender. This is a completely new concept for native English speakers.

For example: 

• the dog: der Hund
• the cat: die Katze
• the horse: das Pferd 

As you can see, German nouns can have one of three genders:

• der (masculine form of “the”)
• die (feminine form of “the”)
• das (neuter form of “the”)

Tip – when you learn new German vocabulary, try to learn the gender as well. Knowing the gender will help you choose the right case and endings.

In addition to gender, the participle of a noun changes depending on whether it is subject, subject, direct object, or indirect object. In German grammar, the four cases are nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive.

• The nominative case is used for the subjects of sentences. The subject is the person or thing that performs the action. For example, in the sentence “a girl kicks a ball”, the subject is “girl”.
• The accusative case applies to direct objects. The direct object is the person or thing that receives the action. So in ‘the girl kicks the ball’ the ‘ball’ is the direct object.
• The dative case is for indirect objects. An indirect object is the person or thing that “gets” the direct object. So in the sentence “The girl kicks the boy’s ball” the “boy” is the indirect object.
• The genitive case is used to express possession. In English we show possession with an apostrophe + with “the girl’s ball”.

2. The Nominative Case (Der Nominativ)

The nominative case answers the question, wer? or “who?”

In both German and English, the nominative case describes the subject of the sentence. Masculine, feminine and neuter articles appear as follows:

You can see the nominative in context in these examples:

• Die (Eine) Frau lebt in Deutschland. (The woman (a) lives in Germany.) In this example, the subject of the sentence is Die Frau, or the woman.
• Der (Ein) Mann arbeitet in der Bäckerei. (The man (a) works in a bakery.) The man is the subject of this sentence and takes the nominative case.
• Das (Ein) Kind geht in die Schule. (The child (a) goes to school.) The subject, child, has the nominative case.

3. The Accusative Case (Der Akkusativ)

The accusative case, known in English as the objective case, answers the question wen? or “whom?” and describes the direct object of the sentence.

Let’s see how masculine, feminine and neuter nouns change to the accusative case.

As you probably noticed, only the masculine articles change in the accusative case. Let’s look at some simple examples:

• Das Kind isst einen Apfel.(The child eats an apple). In this sentence, einen Apfel is the accusative direct object. Das Kind is the subject and takes the nominative case.
• Der Mann liebt die Frau. (The man loves the woman). Here, die Frau is the direct object in the accusative case. Der Mann is the subject in the nominative case.
• Die Frau liebt den Mann. (The woman loves the man). Den Mann is the direct object in this sentence and uses the accusative case. Die Frau is the subject and has the nominative case.

There are also a few German prepositions that always use the accusative case:

• durch (through)
• bis (until)
• für (for)
• ohne (without)
• entlang (along)
• gegen (against)
• um (around)

4. The Dative Case (Der Dativ)

The dative case describes the indirect object of a sentence in German and English and answers the question, wem? (whom), or was he? (what).

We typically use the dative case for indirect objects, which usually receive action from the direct object (in the accusative case). As with other cases, word order is flexible as long as you use the correct case. For example:

• Ich (subject) schenke dir (dative indirect object) eine Blume (accusative direct object).
• Eine Blume (accusative direct object) schenke ich (subject) dir (dative indirect object).
• I’m (subject) giving you (indirect object) a flower (direct object).

Several prepositions take the dative case:

• aus (out)
• auβer (besides) 
• bei (next to) 
• mit (with) 
• nach (after)
• seit (since) 
• von (from) 
• zu (to) 
• gegenüber (opposite) 

And some German verbs always take the dative case. These verbs are:

• antworten (to answer)
• danken (to thank)
• glauben (to believe)
• helfen (to help)
• gehören (belong to) 
• gefallen (to like) 

5. The Genitive Case (Der Genitiv)

The genitive indicates possession and answers the question wessen? or “whose?”  In written German, you will most often encounter the case of the genitive case. In spoken German, you’ll hear von (od) and the dative case instead of the genitive case.

For example:

• Das Haus meines Vaters (My father’s house). The genitive case is common in written German.
• Das Haus von meinem Vater (My father’s house). The dative often replaces the genitive in spoken German.
  

Masculine and neuter forms require the ending -s or -es. One-syllable words end in -es, while multi-syllable words end in -s. Here are some examples.

• Der Koffer des Mannes (The man’s suitcase)
• Die Spielzeuge des Kindes (The child’s toys)
• Das Buch meines Bruders (My brother’s book)
• Das Auto meiner Schwester (My sister’s car)

Just as the dative case, certain prepositions always take the genitive case: 

• anstatt (instead of)
• außerhalb (outside of)
• innerhalb (inside of)
• trotz (despite)
• während (during)
• wegen (because of)

But in spoken German, Germans sometimes use the dative case with these genitive prepositions.

Gender and Personal Pronouns in German

The Formal vs Informal ‘You’ in German