Basic patterns in German language:

Personal pronouns in German


A noun is a word used to name a person, an object, an abstract quality or a concept and a personal pronoun stands in for a noun, usually for a person or thing.


Personal pronouns (in nominative):

Personal Pronouns in German (Nominativ)
Note: German has different pronouns for addressing people. Use "du" or "ihr" for friends and children, and familiar peaople. Use the form "Sie" for people whom you do not know well and who are older than you.


Personal pronouns (for all cases):

German is more complicated than English. Almost all the pronouns change their form and have different forms depending on whether you are using them in the accusative or the dative.


German personal pronouns
Note: after certain prepositions such as durch (eng: through), für (eng. for), gegen (eng. against), ohne (eng. without) and um (eng. around), you take the accusative case. Prepositions which take the dative case are: außer (eng. apart from), aus (eng. from), out (eng. of), bei (eng. near), gegenüber (eng. opposite), mit (eng. with), nach (eng. after),  von (eng. from) and zu (eng. to).


Replacing a noun by a personal pronoun.

  • Masculine nouns are replaced by a form of "er", regardless of whether they are people, animals or things.
  • Feminine nouns are replaced by a form of "sie".
  • Neuter nouns are replaced by a form of "es".

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