German Pronouns

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.

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

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:

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– ich		►
I and you	i– u– d- ich und du		►
both of us	w– b—- wir beide		►
he	e- er		►
he and she	e- u– s– er und sie		►
they both	s– b—- sie beide		►
the man	d– M— der Mann		►
the woman	d– F— die Frau		►
the child	d– K— das Kind		►
a family	e— F—— eine Familie		►
my family	m—- F—— meine Familie		►
My family is here.	M—- F—— i– h—. Meine Familie ist hier.		►
I am here.	I– b– h—. Ich bin hier.		►
You are here.	D- b— h—. Du bist hier.		►
He is here and she is here.	E- i– h— u– s– i– h—. Er ist hier und sie ist hier.		►
We are here.	W– s— h—. Wir sind hier.		►
You are here.	I– s— h—. Ihr seid hier.		►
They are all here.	S– s— a— h—. Sie sind alle hier.		►