German Pronouns

German Pronouns

Singular Plural Formal (singular and plural)
Case First Person Second Person Third Person First Person Second Person Third Person Second Person
(English nominative) I you (thou) he it (null) she we you they you
Nominative (subject) ich du er es sie wir ihr sie Sie
Accusative (direct object) mich dich ihn uns euch
Dative (indirect object) mir dir ihm ihr ihnen Ihnen
Genitive meiner
(mein)
deiner
(dein)
seiner
(sein)
ihrer unser euer ihrer Ihrer

 

Possessive pronouns

Possessive pronouns are formed by adding endings to the genitive case of the personal pronoun, eventually stripping it of its genitive ending. The endings are identical to those of the indefinite article ein.

Uninflected forms
m., n. sg. f. sg. pl. courtesy
1st person mein unser
2nd person dein euer Ihr
3rd person sein ihr ihr
Example: mein (my)
Masculine Neuter Feminine Plurals
Nominative mein mein meine meine
Accusative meinen mein meine meine
Dative meinem meinem meiner meinen
Genitive meines meines meiner meiner

Note: When unser and euer have a suffix, the -er gets reduced to -r; e.g. unsremeurem.

 

Pronouns derived from articles

To replace a nominal by a pronoun that is derived from an article, the declined form corresponding to the gender, case, and number of the nominal phrase is used.

Although the pronoun form and the article form are the same in most cases, there are sometimes differences.

The German definite article:

Masculine Neuter Feminine Plural
Nominative der das die die
Accusative den das die die
Dative dem dem der den
Genitive des des der der

Reflexive pronouns

There are also reflexive pronouns for the dative case and the accusative case (reflexive pronouns for the genitive case are possessive pronouns with a “selbst” following after them). In the first and second person, they are the same as the normal pronouns, but they only become visible in the third person singular and plural. The third person reflexive pronoun for both plural and singular is: “sich”:

“Er liebt sich”. (He loves himself.)
“Sie verstecken sich”. (They hide themselves.)

Reflexive pronouns can be used not only for personal pronouns:

“Sie hat sich ein Bild gekauft.” (She bought herself a picture.)
“Seiner ist schon kaputt.” (His is already broken.)
I

I and you

both of us

 
 
 
 
he

he and she

they both

 
 
 
 
the man

the woman

the child

 
 
 
 
a family

my family

My family is here.

 
 
 
 
I am here.

You are here.

He is here and she is here.

 
 
 
 
We are here.

You are here.

They are all here.