German for Music Lovers

Homepage Workbook Links Grammatical Terms Syllabi

Pronouns in German

First Person Singular: the speaker

subject (nominative case) (I): ich

Note: this is not capitalized unless at the beginning of a sentence.

direct object (accusative case) (me): mich

indirect object (dative case) (to me, for me): mir

possessive (genitive case) (my): mein(e)(m/n/r)

First Person Plural: the speakers

subject (nominative case) (we): wir

direct object (accusative case ) (us): uns

indirect object (dative case ) (to us, for us): uns

genitive (possessive case) (our): unser(e)(m/n/r)

Second Person: the one(s) spoken to

Although in English, we use the pronoun "you" for both one listener and more than one, for both listeners we know well and those we do not know, in German we must make distinctions among these various "you" 's.

Sie is both singular and plural, just like "you." However, Sie is not used for people with whom one is intimate, such as friends or family members, or for other people with whom one has a fairly casual relationship, such as classmates and fellow students. Sie is always capitalized.

For intimate, casual relationships, the pronouns du and ihr are used.

The pronoun du is used to address one person; ihr is used to address more than one person.

Sie, du and ihr are the nominative forms. The table below includes all the case forms of these pronouns.
YOU

Click here for an explanation of case.

"formal" you

"casual" you: singular

"casual" you: plural

nominative (you)

Sie

du

ihr

accusative (you)

Sie

dich

euch

dative (to you / for you)

Ihnen

dir

euch

genitive (your)

Ihr(e) (m/n/r)

dein(e) (m/n/r)

eu(e)r(e) (m/n/r)
 

Third Person: the one(s) spoken about

The table below shows the personal pronouns in English and German. Whether one uses the masculine, feminine or neuter pronoun in German depends on the gender of the noun. All German nouns, not just those which refer to people, but also those which refer to things, are masculine, feminine or neuter. When we learn a noun in German, we must also learn its gender and its plural form.

There is only one plural form for all genders;  the gender of the noun does not matter in the plural.

Click here for an explanation of case.
masculine
männlich
feminine
weiblich
neuter
sächlich
plural
mehrzählig
nominative
he (it)

er
she (it)

sie
it (she/he)

es
they

sie
accusative
him (it)

ihn
her (it)

sie
it (her/him)

es
them

sie
dative
to/for him (it)

ihm
to/for her (it)

ihr
to/for it

ihm
to/for them

ihnen
genitive
his (its)

sein(e)(m/n/r)
her (its)

ihr(e)(m/n/r)
its (his/her)

sein(e)(m/n/r)
their

ihr(e)(m/n/r)

Click here to practice the nominative case forms.

Click here to practice the accusative case forms.

Click here to practice the dative case forms.

Other pronouns of interest

The impersonal pronoun is "man."

It is usually used as a subject, though it can be used as an object. The impersonal pronoun in English is "one," though "you" or "people" or "they" are often used as well.

One should not smoke. You should not smoke. People know they should not smoke.

Man soll nicht rauchen. Man soll nicht rauchen. Man weiß, daß man nicht rauchen soll.

 

 

Interrogative Pronouns

Nominative

wer?

who?

Accusative

wen?

whom?

Dative

wem?

to whom? for whom?

Genitive

wessen?

whose?

 

 

Relative Pronouns

The relative pronouns follow the pattern of the "der"-words, with longer versions in the dative plural and genitive case. Like all subordinating conjunctions, they change the word order, "booting" the inflected verb to the end of the clause.

masculine
feminine
neuter
plural

nominative

der

die

das

die

who

accusative

den

die

das

die

whom

dative

dem

der

dem

denen

to whom, for whom

genitive

dessen

deren

dessen

deren

whose

More on Relative Pronouns

Relative pronouns introduce relative clauses, which describe a noun in another clause.

Because they describe a noun, they agree with the noun in gender and number.

Because they represent that noun operating in a relative clause, the case agrees with the function of the pronoun in the clause.

Because a relative clause is necessarily a dependent clause, the inflected verb is "kicked" to the end of the relative clause by the relative pronoun.
Gender and Number The antecedent may be any case.

Any of the relative clauses can be combined with the main clauses, because they match the gender and number of the antecedent.

The case does not necessarily match, however, because the case of the relative pronoun tells you its function in the relative clause.

masculine

singular

 

N

Hier ist der Mann,

Here is the man,
A

Kennst du den Mann,

Do you know the man,
D

Ich spreche mit dem Mann,

I'm speaking with the man,
G

Wie ist der Name des Mannes,

What is the name of the man,

 

 
N

der nach dir fragte.

who was asking about you.
A

den ich besucht habe.

whom I visited.
D

dem ich helfen will.

whom I want to help. (dative verb)
G

dessen Frau mit uns arbeitet

whose wife works with us..

feminine

singular

 Kennst du die Frau,

die nach dir fragte?
die ich besucht habe?

mit der ich spreche?
deren Mann mit uns arbeitet?

neuter

singular

 Wir sprechen mit dem Kind,

das uns besucht.

who is visiting us.

das wir besuchen.

whom we are visiting.
dem wir helfen wollen.
dessen Eltern mit uns arbeiten.

all genders

plural

 Hier ist das Haus der Nachbarn,
die nach dir fragten
die wir besucht haben.
denen wir helfen wollen.
deren Kinder mit unseren zur Schule gehen.

 

Die Moritat von Mackie Messer by Bertolt Brecht has a lot of relative pronouns, along with links to a related exercise.
The folk-tale Hiddensee has an exercise on relative pronouns as well.

Homepage Workbook Links Grammatical Terms Syllabi

©A. Campitelli, Greensboro, NC 1999-2001