Pronouns – LEARN TO SPEAK GERMAN

Pronouns are words that stand in place of a noun. In German, third person pro-nouns must be true to the gender, number, and case of the nouns they replace:

der Mann → masculine singular nominative →   er
die Frau →  feminine singular dative → ihr

das Kind   →  neuter singular accusative → es
die Kinder → plural nominative → sie

First, let’s look at all the personal pronouns in the three cases and as posses-sive adjectives:

   Nom Acc Dat Poss

ich	mich	mir	mein	I, me, my
du	dich	dir	dein	you, your (informal singular)
er	ihn	ihm	sein	he/it, his/its
sie	sie	ihr	ihr	she/it, her/its
es	es	ihm	sein	it, its
wir	uns	uns	unser	we, us, our
ihr	euch	euch	euer	you, your (informal plural)
Sie	Sie	Ihnen	Ihr	you, your (formal singular or plural)
sie	sie	ihnen	ihr	they, them, their

Most German personal pronouns are used like their English counterparts. But the third person pronouns (er, sie, es) reflect the gender of the word they replace: masculine, feminine, or neuter—whether animate or inanimate. The English meaning of the noun should not be considered, because sexual gender does not determine the gender of a German pronoun. For example:

Masculine Pronoun
der Lehrer teacher er he
der Garten garden er it
Feminine Pronoun
die Richterin judge sie she
die Blume flower sie it
Neuter Pronoun
das Kind child es he, she
das Dorf village es it

In the plural, the German and English third person pronouns are used identically: gender is not considered, and all nouns are replaced by a single pronoun, sie (they):

Plural Pronoun
die Leute people sie they
die Zeitungen newspapers sie they

Man

The third person pronoun man is generally translated as one. But in reality it has other English translations: you, they, someone, people, and certain phrases expressed in the passive voice. For example, the most common use of man is in sentences such as these:

Man soll nicht fluchen. One should not curse.
Man kann nie wissen. You can never tell.
Man hat ihn dafür verprügelt. They beat him up for it.

But other translations can also be used for this pronoun:

Man wartet vor dem Eingang. Someone is waiting in front of the entrance.
Damals glaubte man, dass die Erde flach war. Back then people believed the earth was flat.
Man hat herausgefunden, dass sie das Geld It was discovered that she stole the money.

gestohlen hat.

The pronoun man is not a substitute for a specific noun. It is used to express what people do in general or to point out that the person or persons carrying out an action are unknown. Man is used only as a replacement for people and is only used in the nominative case. If another case is required, a form of einer is used:

Man ist froh, wenn einem ein kleines One is happy when one is given a little gift.
Geschenk gegeben wird.

When forming German sentences, it is wise to consider carefully whether the English relates to people in general or specific people. This will help to determine whether man is the appropriate pronoun for a sentence. For example:

Man liebte den alten König. People loved the old king. (general)
Das Volk des Dorfes liebte den alten The people of the village loved
König. the old king. (specific)

Jemand and niemand

The third person pronouns jemand and niemand refer to someone and no one. Specific people are not identified. Unlike man, these two pronouns can be declined, although the accusative and dative endings are optional:

Nominative: niemand jemand
Accusative: niemand(en) jemand(en)
Dative: niemand(em) jemand(em)
Genitive: niemandes jemandes

Einer and keiner

The pronouns einer and keiner are similar to niemand and jemand in usage. They refer to some-one or no one/none and are declined like ein-words. However, they also reflect gender and, in the case of keiner, can occur in the plural. Let’s look at the declension of keiner:

Masc. Fem. Neut. Pl.

Nominative: keiner keine keines keine

Accusative: keinen keine keines keine

Dative: keinem keiner keinem keinen

Genitive: keines keiner keines keiner

When forming sentences, remember that a genitive phrase can follow einer (one of . . . ) or

keiner (none of . . . ). The gender ending of einer or keiner is determined by the gender of the noun in the genitive phrase:

Eine der Frauen fing an zu weinen. One of the women began to cry.
Keines der kleinsten Kinder verstand None of the littlest children understoodthe
die Gefahr. danger.

Einander

The reciprocal pronoun einander (one another, each other) refers to an action that is shared by two parties. It is used in the form einander or combined with a preposition, such as miteinander (with one another, with each other). When einander is combined with a preposition, the preposition becomes a prefix and the two parts are written as one word.
When two parties carry out the same action in two different sentences, the sentences can be combined as one with a form of einander. For example:

Tina liebt Erik. Erik liebt Tina. Tina loves Erik. Erik loves Tina
Tina und Erik lieben einander. Tina and Erik love one another
Er spricht mit ihr. Sie spricht mit ihm. He speaks with her. She speaks with him
Sie sprechen miteinander. They speak with one another.

Reflexive pronouns

The reflexive pronoun sich is used with all third person pronouns and all nouns. It is only in the first and second persons that other forms occur, with certain differences between the accusative and dative cases:

Nom. Acc. Dat.
ich mich mir I, myself
du dich dir you, yourself
er sich sich he, himself
sie sich sich she, herself
es sich sich it, itself
wir uns uns we, ourselves
ihr euch euch you, yourselves
Sie sich sich you, yourself, yourselves
sie sich sich they, themselves
When the subject of a sentence and the pronoun object of that sentence refer to different persons or things, a reflexive pronoun is not used:

Der Mann fragte sie, wie es geschehen ist. The man asked her how it happened.

But when the subject and object are the same person or thing, a reflexive pronoun is used:
Der Mann fragte sich, wie es geschehen ist. The man asked himself how it happened.
If the pronoun object is a direct object or follows an accusative preposition, use the accusa-tive reflexive pronoun. If the pronoun object is an indirect object or follows a dative preposition, use the dative reflexive pronoun:

Accusative
Wofür interessiert sie sich? What’s she interested in?
(direct object)
Du denkst nur an dich. You only think about yourself.
(accusative preposition)
Dative
Ich bestelle mir ein Glas Bier. I order myself a glass of beer.
(indirect object)
Er hat kein Geld bei sich. He doesn’t have any money on him.
(dative preposition)

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