German Pronouns

While English and German pronouns function in the same way, there
are a few major differences. One of which being that German has
more personal pronouns than English. This is because German has
unfamiliar cases and formal versions of pronouns. No need to be
overwhelmed, though, I’m going to do my best to break it down into
digestible chunks.

Cases and Pronouns

Since the variety of cases are likely the most challenging part about
learning personal pronouns in German let’s do a refresher on the
three relevant cases and how they operate in respect to pronouns!

Nominative (written as Nominativ in German)

In basic terms, when a pronoun is in the nominative, it is the subject
that is performing an action. In the sentence “Mike is going to the
store”, Mike is nominative. Therefore, when we replace Mike with
the pronoun He in this sentence “He is going to the store”, He is also
nominative.
Accusative (or Akkusativ in German)
When a pronoun is in the accusative, it is the direct object of a
transitive verb. In the sentence “Mike is going to the store”, the
store is accusative and going is the verb that it’s the direct object of.
When the store is substituted for the pronoun it in the sentence
“Mike is going to it”, it is accusative as well.
Dative (Dativ in German)
When a pronoun is in the dative case it is the recipient of an action,
or the “whom” that an action is done for. In other words, it is the
indirect object. In the sentence “The cashier handed Mike the
groceries”, Mike is dative, so when we replace Mike with him like so:
“The cashier handed him the groceries”, him is once again dative.
There are also dative prepositions that make any noun that follows
dative, these apply to pronouns as well!
If you are familiar with the additional German cases, you may be
wondering where the genetive case is in this list. It is missing
because the genetive case is only applied to dependent possessive
pronouns, not personal pronouns.
So, what are all the German personal pronouns you can use?
First-Person German Pronouns

Let’s start with what’s probably the easiest: first-person pronouns.

Chances are that if you’re reading this you already have a grasp on
first-person pronouns in German, but you may not have thought too
deeply about the mechanics of these pronouns. Here’s a chart that
breaks down first-person German pronouns into the different cases
and singular versus plural versions.

These pronouns are equivalent to I/me and we/us in English just with
the additional dative form. Notably, in German, you do not
capitalize ich (unless it’s at the beginning of a sentence) like you
would “I” in English. The only German pronouns you capitalize are
the formal pronouns.
Examples of First-Person German Pronouns in Use:

 Sing. + Nom. – Ich gehe einkaufen. (I am going shopping.)

 Sing. + Acc. – Der Ladenbesitzer stellt mich ein. (The shop
owner hires me.)
 Sing. + Dat. – Der Man gibt mir fünf Euro für die
Erdbeeren. (The man gives me five Euros for the
strawberries.)
 Pl. + Nom. – Wir fahren nachhause. (We are driving home.)
 Pl. + Acc. – Unsere Katze liebt uns. (Our cat loves us.)
 Pl. + Dat. – Jakob kocht uns Abendessen. (Jakob is cooking
us dinner.)
Second Person German Pronouns

Now as we enter the realm of second-person pronouns things get a

touch more complicated because we add formal forms to our chart.
Formal pronouns are used with people of authority like your boss or
a teacher, or elders, or anyone you want to extend extra respect to.
Also, German has a plural “you”, which can be confusing coming
from a language like English that doesn’t have 2nd person plural
forms of pronouns. Second person plural works like saying “You all”
or “You guys” in English. They are pronouns to refer to a group of
people you are speaking to as opposed to just one person like You.

Every single one of these German pronouns in the chart above

translates to “you” in English. Luckily, both the plural and singular
formal pronouns are the same for each case making them easy to
remember! Sie/Sie/Ihnen!
Example Sentences with Second-Person German Pronouns:

 Sing. + Nom. + Informal – Du trinkst gerne Kaffee. (You like

to drink coffee.)
 Sing. + Acc. + Informal – Der Barista hört dich. (The barista
hears you.)
 Sing. + Dat. + Informal – Ich mache dir eine Tasse Tee. (I
make you a cup of tea.)
 Sing. + Nom. + Formal – Sie trinken gerne Kaffee. (You like
to drink coffee.)
 Sing. + Acc. + Formal – Der Barista hört Sie. (The barista
hears you.)
 Sing. + Dat. + Formal – Ich mache Ihnen eine Tasse Tee. (I
make you a cup of tea.)
 Pl. + Nom. + Informal – Ihr fahrt zusammen Fahrrad. (You
are riding bikes together.)
 Pl. + Acc. + Informal – Ein Hund folgt euch. (A dog follows
you.)
 Pl. + Dat. + Informal – Wir zeigen euch die schönen
Naturwege. (We’re showing you the nice nature paths.)
 Pl. + Nom. + Formal – Sie fahren zusammen Fahrrad. (You
are riding bikes together.)
  Pl. + Acc. + Formal – Ein Hund folgt Ihnen. (A dog follows
you.)
 Pl. + Dat. + Formal – Wir zeigen Ihnen die schönen
Naturwege. (We’re showing you the beautiful forest paths.)
Third Person German Pronouns

Third-person pronouns no longer have formal and informal versions,

but the third-person singular pronouns do have gender. Gender in
German is easy to manage when it comes to people, but there are
people that you would sometimes use neuter pronouns for like if you
are speaking about a child whose gender you do not know you
would use the pronoun es (it). Make sure you know the gender of
the noun you’re replacing with a pronoun otherwise your sentences
will get confusing!

Note on Dative Neuter: Although I’m not going to claim that it never
happens it’s very rare for dative to refer to a thing. The
neuter ihm will often refer to a neuter person noun like a child, or
an animal instead.For third-person pronouns sie/sie/ihnen returns
once again, but this time as a third-person plural form. It’s
uncapitalized because it’s not formal.
Examples of Third-Person German Pronouns in Use:

 Sing. + Nom. + Masculine – Er isst gerne Kuchen. (He

enjoys eating cake.)
 Sing. + Acc. + Masculine – Sein Freund ist neidisch auf ihn.
(His friend is jealous of him.)
 Sing. + Dat. + Masculine – Der Bäcker gibt ihm ein Stück
Aprikosenkuchen. (The baker gives him a slice of apricot
cake.)
 Sing. + Nom. + Feminine – Sie will auch Aprikosenkuchen
essen. (She also wants to eat apricot cake.)
  Sing. + Acc. + Feminine – Der Bäcker mag sie nicht. (The
baker doesn’t like her.)
 Sing. + Dat. + Feminine – Er gibt ihr keinen Kuchen. (He
doesn’t give her cake.)
 Sing. + Nom. + Neuter – Es ist ein teueres Stück
Kuchen. (It is an expensive piece of cake.)
 Sing. + Acc. + Neuter – Der Junge hat es gegessen. (The
boy ate it.)
 Sing. + Dat. + Neuter – Der Jungt gibt ihm die Leine. (The
boy gives it [a dog or other animal] the leash.)
 Pl. + Nom. – Sie kaufen brot. (They buy bread.)
 Pl. + Acc. – Das Geschäft hat keinen Brot fur sie. (The
store has no bread for them.)
 Pl. + Dat. – Ich kaufe ihnen Brot. (I buy them bread.)
How to Use German Pronouns
Now that we’ve seen all the personal pronouns German has to offer,
we need to figure out a reliable system of using them. What is
everything we now know about German pronouns?

1. They replace a noun or noun phrase in a sentence

2. They vary based on person and case
3. And occasionally by gender and formality
So with that in mind the easiest way to manage German personal
pronouns is to make yourself a mental (or physical if you need
reference while your writing) checklist.

5 steps to using German Pronouns

1. What is the noun you are replacing?

2. Is it going to be 1st, 2nd, or 3rd person?
3. Is it singular or plural?
4. What is its case?
5. Does it need extra modification like gender or formality?