Personal pronouns (Personalpronomen) are words that replace nouns to avoid repetition.
Example:
- Anna hat einen Hund. Sie liebt ihn. (Anna has a dog. She loves it.)
In this example, Sie (she) is in nominative case as the subject, while ihn (it) is in accusative case as the direct object of the verb liebt (loves).
Different forms of personal pronouns
Person | Nominative | Accusative | Dative |
1st person singular | ich (I) | mich (me) | mir (to me) |
2nd person singular (informal) | du (you) | dich (you) | dir (to you) |
3rd person masculine | er (he) | ihn (him) | ihm (to him) |
3rd person feminine | sie (she) | sie (her) | ihr (to her) |
3rd person neuter | es (it) | es (it) | ihm (to it) |
1st person plural | wir (we) | uns (us) | uns (to us) |
2nd person plural (informal) | ihr (you all) | euch (you all) | euch (to you all) |
3rd person plural | sie (they) | sie (them) | ihnen (to them) |
Formal (singular/plural) | Sie (you) | Sie (you) | Ihnen (to you) |
Nominative Case
- Ich gehe zur Schule. (I go to school.)
- Du lernst Deutsch. (You learn German.)
Accusative Case
- Meine Mutter kennt dich. (My mother knows you.)
- Die Kinder verstehen ihn nicht. (The children don't understand him.)
Dative Case
- Dein Bruder gibt mir das Buch. (Your brother gives the book to me.)
- Seine Freundin schreibt ihm einen Brief. (His girlfriend writes a letter to him.)
In modern German, the use of personal pronouns in genitive case is very rare. However, possessive pronouns are common in the genitive case.
Additional rules
Usage of pronoun es
Apart from referring to neuter nouns, es has several special uses in German:
- Replacement of whole clauses / whole sentences
- Solltest du nicht anrufen? Ich wollte es tun, aber mein Handy war leer.
- Kannst du mir helfen umzuziehen? Leider kann ich es nicht, weil ich arbeiten muss.
Like English “it,” “es” can be used as a replacement for an entire statement.
(Weren't you supposed to call? I wanted to do it, but my phone was dead.)
(Can you help me move? Unfortunately, I cannot do it because I have to work.)
- Dummy (placeholder) subject
- Es regnet. (It’s raining.)
- Es ist wichtig, pünktlich zu sein. (It is important to be punctual.)
“Es” fills the mandatory subject slot when no real subject is available.
- Formal object
- Ich habe es eilig. (I'm in a hurry.)
- Sie macht es möglich, dass wir früher gehen. (She makes it possible for us to leave earlier.)
Certain verbs take "es" as an object even when another complement follows.
Position of personal pronouns
- Pronouns before nouns
- Ich gebe ihm morgen das Buch. (I will give him the book tomorrow.)
- Wir zeigen ihr später unser Foto. (We will show her our photo later.)
- Er schenkt es seinem Bruder. (He gives it to his brother.)
Personal pronouns normally precede full noun phrases.
- Case hierarchy of pronouns
- Gib es mir bitte. (Give it to me please.)
- Erklärt er sie ihm? (Does he explain it to him?)
When both objects are pronouns, the accusative pronoun comes before the dative pronoun.
The accusative pronoun (es) comes before the dative pronoun (mir).