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Personal Pronouns - Summary

A pronoun always replaces a noun. Do you know what pronoun means exactly? It comes from the Latin lanuage, the language of the old Romans:

Latin English Translation + Latin English English Translation
pro for nomen noun name

As you can see, it means "for a name". So it replaces a noun which is already known to the speaker or writer.

Here is a survey of the personal pronouns in the four cases. It is the best if you just learn these forms by heart: ich - meiner - mir - mich, du - deiner - dir - dich and so on. This is not so much work, and then you will always know all forms in case you need them.

  Subject Form Object Forms    
Form Nominative Genitive Dative Accusative
1. person singular ich meiner mir mich
2. person singular (familiar) du deiner dir dich
3. person singular er seiner ihm ihn
3. person singular sie ihrer ihr sie
3. person singular es seiner ihm es
1. person plural wir unser uns uns
2. person plural (familiar) ihr euer euch euch
3. person plural sie ihrer ihnen sie
polite form Sie Ihrer Ihnen Sie

 

Very important!

The pronoun which replaces the noun always has the same gender as the noun mentioned before, even if the noun is a thing.

Example:

Sentence Phonetic Script English Translation
Ich habe eine Tasche f. [ɪç 'ha:bə 'ainə 'taʃə] I have a bag.

The f after Tasche means that it is a feminine noun ( die Tasche = the bag). By the way, if you find an m after a noun, it means masculine. nt means neutral.

Now we are going to replace the feminine noun as follows:

Sentence Phonetic Script English Translation
Ich gebe sie ihr. [ɪç 'ge:bə zi: i:ə] I give it to her.
Subject Predicate Accusative Dative     Subject Predicate Direct Indirect
    Object Object         Object Object

The pronoun "sie" stands for the bag. In English you use the word "it" for things. In German the pronoun has the same gender as the noun which is replaced.

 

Examples for the different cases:

Nominative (Subject): German Phonetic Script English
Question: Who is doing sth? Ich verstehe Deutsch. [ɪç fɛɐ'ʃte:ə dɔytʃ] I understand German.

 

Genitive (Object): German Phonetic Script English
Question: Whose? Ich gedenke seiner. [ɪç gə'dɛŋkə 'zainɐ] I remember him.
Example Verb jemandes gedenken ['je:mandəs gə'dɛŋkən] to remember someone

 

Dative (Object): German Phonetic Script English
Question: (To) Whom? Er hilft mir. [e:ɐ hɪlft mi:ə] He helps me.
Example Verb jemandem helfen ['je:mandəm 'hɛlfən] to help someone
The dative object corresponds to the indirect object.

 

Accusative (Oject): German Phonetic Script English
Question: Who? Sie liebt ihn. [zi: li:pt i:n] She loves him.
Example Verb jemanden lieben ['je:mandən 'li:bən] to love someone
The accusative object corresponds to the direct object.

 

If you have already been learning German somewhere else - at school or university or elsewhere - and if you are insecure which case is used with the verb you want to use, then look it up in a dictionary:

Object Form Dictionary Meaning Phonetic Script English
Genitive: jds gedenken jemandes gedenken ['je:mandəs gə'dɛŋkən] to remember someone
Dative: jdm helfen jemandem helfen ['je:mandəm 'hɛlfən] to help someone
Accusative: jdn lieben jemanden lieben ['je:mandən 'li:bən] to love someone

Have a look if the verb stands with jds (genitive), jdm (dative) or jdn (accusative).

 

If there are two personal pronouns (dative and accusative) in one sentence, then the accusative (a thing) comes before the dative (a person):

Sentence Phonetic Script English Translation
Ich gebe es ihm. [ɪç 'ge:bə ɛs i:m] I give it to him.
Subject Predicate Accusative Dative   Subject Predicate Direct Indirect
    Object Object         Object Object