Everything You Need To Know About German Pronouns

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.

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? 

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. 

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.

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) 

*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

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. 

In accusative, you add “-en” for masculine nouns, nothing for neutral nouns, and “-e” for feminine and plural nouns.

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. 

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. 

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): 

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. 

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.

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?

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?

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 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.