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Personal Pronouns - Nominative |
Here are the personal pronouns in the first case (nominative):
Form | German | Phonetic Script | English Subject Form |
1. person singular | ich | [ɪç] | I |
2. person singular (familiar) | du | [du:] | you |
3. person singular | er | [e:ɐ] | he |
3. person singular | sie | [zi:] | she |
3. person singular | es | [ɛs] | it |
1. person plural | wir | [vi:ə] | we |
2. person plural | ihr | [i:ə] | you |
3. person plural | sie | [zi:] | they |
polite form | Sie | [zi:] | you (polite form) |
A pronoun always replaces a noun. The nominative is the first case. We use the nominative forms of the pronouns whenever they represent the subject of the sentence. The subject is the acting part of the sentence which the predicate (the conjugated form of the verb) refers to.
Here is an example:
German | Phonetic Script | English |
Ich verstehe Deutsch. | [ɪç fɛɐ'ʃte:ə dɔytʃ] | I understand German. |
In this sentence, "Ich" is the pronoun in the nominative case. As I have already explained, it is the acting part of the sentence.
If you ask for the subject of the example sentence, you ask: Who (is doing something)? The answer in this case would be: I (am doing something), namely I understand German.