Everything You Need To Know About German Pronouns

When it comes to German pronouns, or Pronomen, they may seem kind of confusing compared to English at first. 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 different types of pronouns that exist in the German language, how to use them, and in which ways they differ from English pronouns. 

From the Personalpronomen (personal pronouns), which you’ll be familiar with if you have looked into German verbs before, to Indefinitpronomen (indefinite pronouns), and everything in-between, you can gain confidence 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?
• 3 tips to form German pronouns correctly
• Personalpronomen (personal pronouns) in German
• German Reflexivpronomen (reflexive pronouns) 
• Possessivpronomen (possessive pronouns) in German
• German Relativpronomen (relative pronouns)
• Demonstrativpronomen (demonstrative pronouns) in German
• Interrogativpronomen (interrogative pronouns) in German
• German Indefinitpronomen (indefinite pronouns)
• Key takeaways about German pronouns

What are German pronouns?

Pronouns are a useful tool to learn to get more familiar with a new language. They are used to replace 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 different types for all kinds of situations. All of these pronoun forms also exist in English where they fulfill the same roles. 

• Personalpronomen (personal pronouns) are for replacing nouns in a sentence.
  • For example: er (he).
• Reflexivpronomen (reflexive 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 specific nouns.
  • For example: dieser (this).
• Interrogativpronomen (interrogative pronouns) are used to ask about nouns.
  • For example: was? (what?).
• Indefinitpronomen (indefinite pronouns) can make general statements without talking about any one specific 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 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 different ways in which German pronouns change. Let’s take a look at them with the example of the possessive pronoun mein (my).

1. 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. 

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

• Mein (das) Pferd. = My horse.
• Mein (der) Hund. = My dog.
• Meine (die) Katze. = My cat.

3. 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 first glance, seeing as they work quite differently 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): This 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.  

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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 differences 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 difference 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 different forms in German. This is similar to English where you have “I” and “me,” for example. What’s different from English is that there are two different 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 (Nominative)	Direct Object Pronoun (Accusative)	Indirect Object Pronoun  (Dative)	English
ich I	mich	mir	me
du you	dich	dir	you (singular)
er he	ihn	ihm	him
sie she	sie	ihr	her
es it	es	ihm	it
Sie you, formal	Sie	Ihnen	you (formal)
wir we	uns	uns	us
ihr you, plural	euch	euch	you (plural)
sie they	sie	ihnen	them

German Reflexivpronomen (reflexive pronouns) 

German reflexive pronouns come in two variants. 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 (Nominative)	Reflexive Pronoun (Accusative)	English
ich	mich	myself
du	dich	yourself
er	sich	himself
sie	sich	herself
es	sich	itself
Sie (you, formal)	sich	him/herself
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 reflexive 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 (Nominative)	Reflexive Pronoun (Dative)	English
ich	mir	me
du	dir	you (singular)
er	ihm	him
sie	ihr	her
es	ihm	it
Sie (you, formal)	ihnen	him/her
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 first two things that influence 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 (Nominative)	Masculine/Neutral	Feminine/Plural	English
ich  I	mein	meine	my
iu  you	dein	deine	your (singular)
er  he	sein	seine	his
sie she	ihr	ihre	her
es  it	sein	seine	its
Sie  you, formal	ihr	ihre	his/her
wir  we	unser	unsere	our
ihr  you, plural	euer*	eure	your (plural)
sie  they	ihr	ihre	their

*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 difference 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 (who/that)	Genitive (whose)	Dative (whom)	Accusative (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 (which)	Dative (which)	Accusative (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 specific 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 different from their English counterparts. German has dieses und jenes, equivalents of “this” and “that”  which we’ll briefly cover later.

The first and simplest form of demonstrative pronouns is just the specific 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 different.

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 different 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 fish 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 first 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 different 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 different 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 flowers 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)

Indefinitpronomen in German come in many different forms and flavors, 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 specific 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 indefinite 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 first 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 different kinds of pronouns in German, all of which are also present in English: Personalpronomen, Reflexivpronomen, Possessivpronomen, Relativpronomen, Demonstrativpronomen, Interrogativpronomen Indefinitpronomen.
• Each type of pronoun has a specific purpose: replacing nouns to avoid repetition, clarifying possession, and making general statements about a non-specific person or object.
• To master German pronouns, you’ll need to understand the four different German cases (Norminativ, Genitiv, Dativ, Akkusativ) and how they affect pronouns. 
• Even though German pronouns have their own rules, there are still similarities to English that you will be familiar with before learning the differences.

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