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Everything You Need To Know About German

Pronouns
Written by Johanna Hopp August 6, 2024

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When it comes to German pronouns, or Pronomen, they may seem kind of confusing compared to English at
rst. But at their core, they work the same despite their unique quirks. To gain an understanding of German
pronouns, you’ll need to learn all of the seven di erent types of pronouns that exist in the German language,
how to use them, and in which ways they di er from English pronouns.

From the Personalpronomen (personal pronouns), which you’ll be familiar with if you have looked into German
verbs before, to Inde nitpronomen (inde nite pronouns) and everything in between, you can gain con dence
in using pronouns in German. And if you need a little more help along the way, try the Live Lessons in the
Rosetta Stone app to hear these essential parts of speech in context!

Table of
Contents

What are German pronouns?

Pronouns are a useful tool to learn to get more familiar with a new language. They are used to replace German
nouns in a sentence to avoid repetition and help in expressing yourself clearer and more directly.

In German, pronouns are called Pronomen, and there are seven di erent types for all kinds of situations. All of
these pronoun forms also exist in English where they ful ll the same roles.

Personalpronomen (personal pronouns) are for replacing nouns in a sentence.

For example: er (he)

Re exivpronomen (re exive pronouns) refer back to a noun that is already used in the same sentence.
For example: mich (myself)

Possessivpronomen (possessive pronouns) states when one noun belongs to another.

For example: meiner (my)

Relativpronomen (relative pronouns) are used to introduce relative clauses which clarify things about a
noun.
For example: welcher (which)

Demonstrativpronomen (demonstrative pronouns) point out speci c nouns.

For example: dieser (this)

Interrogativpronomen (interrogative pronouns) are used to ask about nouns.

For example: was? (what?)

Inde nitpronomen (inde nite pronouns) can make general statements without talking about any one
speci c noun.
For example: jemand (someone)

3 tips to form German pronouns correctly

You can’t talk about pronouns in German without talking about Deklination (declension). This handy little word
describes the way in which words will change and adapt to the words around them. You might say declension
is like conjugation for German articles and pronouns. It’s driven by German gender rules for nouns which are
always masculine, feminine, or neutral as indicated respectively by the articles der, die, and das. Pronouns will
also change when the noun is plural.

There are three di erent ways in which German pronouns change. Let’s take a look at them with the example
of the possessive pronoun mein (my).

In English, the possessive pronoun here is “my” in both cases, but in German it changes from mein to
meine between singular and plural. For example:
Mein Hund. = My dog.
Meine Hunde. = My dogs.

The Genus (gender) of the noun that the pronoun is referring to also a ects how the pronoun is written.
For example:

Mein (das) Pferd. = My horse.

Mein (der) Hund. = My dog.

Meine (die) Katze. = My cat.

The Fall (case) the sentence is written in can impact the pronoun’s form depending on if it’s possessive or
referring to an indirect object.

Case German English

Nominativ (nominative) Mein Hund liebt Essen. My dog loves food.

Dativ (dative) Das Auge von meinem Hund. The eye of my dog.

Akkusativ (accusative) Ich liebe meinen Hund. I love my dog.

Genitiv (genitive) Die Ohren meines Hundes. My dog’s ears.

How the four cases affect German pronouns

German cases may seem intimidating at rst glance, seeing as they work quite di erently from English.
However, they become a lot easier to unravel when you understand that their roles are to indicate subject,
direct object, and indirect object in a sentence as well as to state when something belongs to someone or
something else. Here are some brief explanations and examples.

Nominative (nominative): Nominative is the simplest of the German cases. It indicates the subject of a
sentence and is generally pretty straightforward.
Ich bin hier. = I am here.

Dativ (dative): The dative case indicates the indirect object of a sentence. It is used after prepositions such
as “on,” “with,” “in,” and “of.”
Ich sitze auf meinem Stuhl. = I am sitting on my chair.

Akkusativ (accusative): The accusative case is the fourth of the German cases and indicates the direct
object of a sentence. It is pretty straightforward as well.
Sie wäscht den Hund = She washes the dog.

Genitiv (genitive): The genitive is used to indicate possession and connection between two nouns.
Die Familie, deren Haus blau ist. = The family whose house is blue.

Personalpronomen (personal pronouns) in

German
Personalpronomen are the most basic form of pronouns and the ones you’ll encounter the most often when
you learn German. They’re the basis of learning to introduce yourself, of conjugating verbs, and to talking
about basic things. They operate pretty similarly to English, with just a few di erences that we will show you in
the German pronoun chart below.

Subject Pronoun English

ich I

du you

er/sie/es he/she/it

Sie you (formal)

wir we

ihr you all

sie they

The formal pronoun Sie

One major di erence of German compared to English is the presence of a formal version of “you.” This formal
pronoun is always Sie, pronounced “zee.” The lowercase sie means “they,” which can be slightly confusing
when starting a sentence. For instance, Sie sind nett can either mean “They are nice” or “You are nice,”
depending on the context.

The formal “you” is most often used in professional or respectful settings, for example when talking to your
boss, to a stranger, or to an employee in a shop. You can determine if Sie refers to “they” or the formal “you”
either through context, or by checking if it’s capitalized.

As a rule, pronouns in German are not capitalized unless they’re at the beginning of a sentence. But the
formal Sie is an exception—it is always capitalized to show its status as a sign of polite respect.

German Personalpronomen as direct objects (accusative) and

indirect objects (dative)

When used as an object in a sentence, personal pronouns have di erent forms in German. This is similar to
English where you have “I” and “me,” for example. What’s di erent from English is that there are two di erent
forms, depending on if the personal pronoun is a direct or indirect object.

Sie sieht mich. = She sees me.

Kannst du ihr den Brief geben? = Can you give her the letter?

Subject Pronoun Direct Object Pronoun Indirect Object Pronoun

English
(Nominative) (Accusative) (Dative)

ich
mich mir me
I

du
dich dir you (singular)
you

er
ihn ihm him
he

sie
sie ihr her
she

es
es ihm it
it

Sie
Sie Ihnen you (formal)
you, formal

wir
uns uns us
we

ihr
euch euch you (plural)
you, plural

sie
sie ihnen them
they

German Reflexivpronomen (reflexive pronouns)

There are two variants of German re exive pronouns. One uses the Akkusativ (direct object) variant of the
personal pronouns, such as mich which is the equivalent to the English “myself.”

Ich wasche mich. = I wash myself.

Er schaut sich an. = He is looking at himself.

Wir setzen uns hin. = We are sitting (ourselves) down.

Subject Pronoun Re exive Pronoun

English
(Nominative) (Accusative)

ich mich myself

du dich yourself

er sich himself

sie sich herself

es sich itself

Sie (you, formal) sich yourself

wir uns ourselves

ihr euch yourselves

sie (plural) sich themselves

The second variant uses the Dativ (indirect object) form of the personal pronouns such as mir and is equivalent
to the English “me.” This one is used similarly to how Spanish re exive pronouns are used.

Ich wasche mir die Hände. = I wash (me) my hands.

Er bringt euch englisch bei. = He is teaching you English.

Subject Pronoun Re exive Pronoun

English
(Nominative) (Dative)

ich mir me

du dir you (singular)

er ihm him

sie ihr her

es ihm it

Sie (you, formal) ihnen you

wir uns us

ihr euch you (plural)

sie (plural) ihnen them

Possessivpronomen (possessive pronouns) in

German
German possessive pronouns are pretty similar to English, but they are more prone to declension than their
English counterparts. The rst two things that in uence a possessive pronoun are the Genus (Gender, in a
grammatical context), and Anzahl (amount).

As you can see, there is one form of the Possessivpronomen for the masculine and the neutral nouns, and one
form for the feminine and the plural nouns. This rule is true for all possessive pronouns in their nominative
form.

Der Vater (the father) = Mein Vater (my father)

Das Kind (the child) = Mein Kind (my child)

Die Mutter (the mother) = Meine Mutter (my mother)

Die Eltern (the parents) = Meine Eltern (my parents)

Subject Pronoun
Masculine/Neutral Feminine/Plural English
(Nominative)

ich
mein meine my
I

iu
dein deine your (singular)
you

er
sein seine his
he

sie
ihr ihre her
she

es
sein seine its
it

Sie
ihr ihre your
you, formal

wir
unser unsere our
we

ihr
euer* eure your (plural)
you, plural

sie
ihr ihre their
they

*Note that the letters in euer got switched around to eure while all other pronouns simply added an extra “-e”
at the end. This is an irregularity, but a consistent one. All other forms of euer that are not the
masculine/neutral nominative form will have “eur-” as their base.

Possessive pronouns in their Genitiv form

To put a Possessivpronom into its Genitiv form you add “-es” for masculine and neutral nouns and “-er” for
feminine and plural nouns. For the masculine/neutral forms the “-es” ending is always applied to the noun
following the possessive pronoun.

Mein Hund = Meines Hundes

Genitive Masculine/Neutral Genitive Feminine/Plural English Pronoun

meines meiner my

deines deiner your (singular)

seines seiner his

ihres ihrer her

seines seiner its

unseres unserer our

eures eurer your (plural)

ihres ihrer their

Possessive pronouns in their Dativ and Akkusativ forms

The following tables show the German possessive pronouns when they refer to an indirect object (Dativ) or
direct object (Akkusativ) in a sentence. Other than with Nominativ and Genitiv forms, there is a di erence
between the feminine and the plural forms of the pronouns in the other two cases.

In the dative case, you add “-em” for masculine and neutral nouns, “-er” for feminine nouns, and “-en” for
plural nouns.

Dative Masculine/Neutral Dative Feminine Dative Plural English

meinem meiner meinen my

deinem deiner deinen your (singular)

seinem seiner seinen his

ihrem ihrer ihren hers

seinem seiner seinen its

unserem unserer unseren our

eurem eurer euren your (plural)

ihrem ihrer ihren their

In accusative, you add “-en” for masculine nouns, nothing for neutral nouns, and “-e” for feminine and plural
nouns.

Accusative Masculine Accusative Neutral Accusative Feminine/Plural English

meinen mein meine my

deinen dein deine your (singular)

seinen sein seine his

ihren ihre ihre hers

seinen sein seine its

unseren unser unsere our

euren euer eure your (plural)

ihren ihr ihre their

German Relativpronomen (relative pronouns)

Similarly to English, German relative pronouns are used to introduce relative clauses and specify things about
a noun. Unlike English, where you have “who,” “which,” “whose,” or “that,” there isn’t a straightforward list to
follow in German.

The German equivalents of the possessive pronouns “who” and “that” can be done entirely with the use of the
direct articles der, die, and das.

Der Mann, der jeden Tag hier ist, trägt heute ein grünes Hemd. = The man who is here every day is wearing a
green shirt today.

Das Restaurant, das letzten Monat aufgemacht hat, ist sehr gut. = The restaurant that opened up last month
is very good.

Nominative Genitive Dative Accusative

(who/that) (whose) (whom) (who/that)

Masculine der dessen dem den

Feminine die deren der die

Neutral das dessen dem das

Plural die deren denen die

The relative pronoun “which” is derived from the word welches and its declensions. Welches does not have a
Genitiv form. You always use dessen, deren, etc. in its place.

Das Restaurant, in welchem wir letztens waren, ist sehr gut. = The restaurant in which we were recently is
very good.

Nominative Dative Accusative

(which) (which) (which)

Masculine welcher welchem welchen

Feminine welche welcher welche

Neutral welches welchem welches

Plural welche welchen welche

Demonstrativpronomen (demonstrative
pronouns) in German
Demonstrativpronomen are great for talking about speci c objects and people. They are the grammatical
equivalent of pointing at something or directing everyone’s attention at just this one thing you’re talking about.

English demonstrative pronouns are based on both amount (singular and plural) and the distance of what is
talked about. You use “this” and “that” as well as “these” and “those” in English. However, German
demonstrative pronouns are a bit di erent from their English counterparts. German has dieses und jenes,
equivalents of “this” and “that” which we’ll brie y cover later.

The rst and simplest form of demonstrative pronouns is just the speci c article of a noun with extra
emphasis. Like when the “the” in English is pronounced “thee,” even if it is not in front of a vowel.

Er ist der beste Fußballspieler. = He is the best soccer player.

Der/die/das can also be used to replace nouns entirely as demonstrative pronouns. They work similarly to their
function as relative pronouns.

Das ist das Fahrrad, das ich mir gewünscht habe. = That is the bike that I wished for.

As such, the articles are also subject to declension when used as demonstrative pronouns. Check out this table
to get an overview of how they change based on Genus (gender, in a grammatical context), and Fall (case):

Masculine Feminine/Plural Neutral

Nominative der die das

Dative dem der/denen dem

Accusative den die das

Genitive dessen deren/derer dessen

You’ll notice many similarities between these German demonstrative pronouns and relative pronouns. It is
mostly their usage that is di erent.

Dieses and jenes

These two demonstrative pronouns take up the role of “this” and “that.” However, jenes isn’t usually used. If
you want to refer to something that isn’t nearby, it’s much more common to say das da (that there). Just take
the demonstrative pronouns shown above with a da added to show the distance.

Die Katze da ist weiß. = That cat there is white.

As for dieses (this), there are di erent forms depending on the gender and case.

Diese Katze ist weiß. = This cat is white.

Der Hut dieser Frau ist rot. = This woman’s hat is red.

Diese Fische sind blau. = These sh are blue.

Masculine Feminine/Plural Neutral

Nominative dieser diese dieses

Dative diesem dieser/diesen diesem

Accusative diesen diese dieses

Genitive dieses dieser dieses

Interrogativpronomen (interrogative pronouns)

in German
There are two categories of Interrogativpronomen. The rst functions the same as English and can be directly
translated with a single form.

Was? = What?

Wer? = Who?

In a sentence, you’d use the interrogative pronoun this way:

Was siehst du? = What do you see?

Wer ist das? = Who is that?

The other category is made up of two interrogative pronouns. One is the di erent forms of wer, which is
subject to declension and changes to form the German versions of “whom” and “whose.”

Wessen Handy ist das? = Whose mobile phone is this?

Wen hast du gesehen? = Who did you see?

Mit wem hast du gesprochen? = With whom did you talk?

Interrogative Pronoun English

Nominative wer who

Dative wem whom

Accusative wen who

Genitive wessen whose

The last interrogative pronoun is welcher (which). This one has di erent forms based on Genus (gender, in a
grammatical context), Anzahl (amount), and Fall (case).

Welches Auto willst du? = Which car do you want?

Welche Blumen hast du in deinem Garten? = Which owers do you have in your garden?

Masculine Feminine/Plural Neutral

Nominative welcher welche welches

Dative welchem welcher/welchen welchem

Accusative welchen welche welches

Genitive welches welcher welches

German Indefinitpronomen (indefinite

pronouns)
Inde nitpronomen in German come in many di erent forms and avors, just as they do in English. We’ll list
the most important ones for you below.

The German man

Man is used if something is just a broad statement with no speci c person in mind. It’s similar to the English
“one” used as a pronoun but much more common.

Man kann es von hier sehen. = One can see it from here.

Man kann dort schwimmen gehen. = One can go swimming there.

Es macht einen müde, so lange zu warten. = It makes one tired to wait this long

A lot of times you’d translate man sentences with “you” in English. For example, it’d sound more natural to say
“You can go swimming there.” But in German you generally use man whenever you’re not directly talking about
any person and just making a general statement.

Es macht einen müde has einen as its inde nite pronoun. This is the accusative version of man and sentences
like this can be translated as “This is tiring.” It states that the thing in question is generally tiring to the people
who are exposed to it.

Jemand and niemand

Jemand and niemand are the German versions of “somebody” and “nobody.” You can put “Irgend-” (any-) in
front of the rst to create Irgendjemand (anybody).

They are both subject to declension based on the case they are in.

Ist hier irgendjemand? = Is anybody there?

Niemand hat mir geantwortet. = Nobody has answered me.

Ich habe jemanden gesehen. = I saw somebody.

Man (you/one) Jemand (somebody) Niemand (nobody)

Nominative man jemand niemand

Dative einem jemandem niemandem

Accusative einen jemanden niemanden

Genitive * jemandes niemandes

*Man is never used in the Genitiv case.

Key takeaways about German pronouns

There are seven di erent kinds of pronouns in German, all of which are also present in English:
Personalpronomen, Re exivpronomen, Possessivpronomen, Relativpronomen, Demonstrativpronomen,
Interrogativpronomen, and Inde nitpronomen.

Each type of pronoun has a speci c purpose: replacing nouns to avoid repetition, clarifying possession,
and making general statements about a non-speci c person or object.

To master German pronouns, you’ll need to understand the four di erent German cases (Norminativ,
Genitiv, Dativ, Akkusativ) and how they a ect pronouns.

Even though German pronouns have their own rules, there are still similarities to English that you will be
familiar with before learning the di erences.

Try German Today

About the author

Johanna Hopp
Johanna Hopp is a native German speaker currently living in Sweden. With three languages under
her belt, she has a love for all things linguistics but is also passionate about birds and the great
outdoors.

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