
Make German Pronouns All Yours! 10 Memory-friendly Steps to Learn German Pronouns in Every Form
Were Crosby, Stills & Nash singing about German pronouns when they crooned I am yours, you are mine, you are what you are?
Well… probably not.
But if you wanted to share the lovely sentiment with your German love interest, how would you do it?
Pronouns—such as yours, mine, you, I—are a tricky component of any language. But as you can probably imagine if you’re a veteran German learner, they’re especially tricky auf Deutsch.
Like articles and adjectives, German pronouns change their form depending on a whole host of grammatical factors. For example, German possessive pronouns can be spelled differently depending on what case they’re in.
But never fear! If you don’t know what we’re talking about, it’ll all be clear soon.
Follow our 10 easy steps to master German pronouns, and you’ll be talking about yours, ours, his and hers in no time.
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Why Can German Pronouns Be Tricky?
- They change based on case (dative, accusative, nominative). In English, the sentence “That’s her” and “Give it to her” use the same pronoun. Don’t count on the same consistency in German.
Pronouns in German change based on whether they’re used in the dative, accusative or nominative case. In order to use a German pronoun, you must first know whether it takes dative, accusative or nominative based on context, then know the proper form in each of those cases.
- German possessive pronouns change based on case—and on gender. Possessive pronouns also change based on whether they appear in accusative, dative or nominative.
But to make matters worse, they also change based on the gender of the object that you possess. The word “your” changes based on whether it’s your Katze (cat) or your Handy (mobile phone).
- And there’s a difference between independent and dependent German possessive pronouns—and that changes the ending too. In English, there’s a difference between saying “That’s my car” and “That’s mine.” If you’re thinking that it’s complicated in English, it must also be complicated in German, then you’re thinking correctly.
German pronouns change depending on whether they precede a noun or whether they describe a previously mentioned noun. And, of course, all of that is dependent on the gender of the noun.
Cases, gender, dependence and independence—it’s a lot to process. To help you internalize these rules, and immerse yourself in German pronouns as they’re really used by native speakers, try FluentU.
With meticulous, interactive captions, you’ll see every word that’s spoken in a video—and you can just hover over anything unfamiliar to get instant definitions, pronunciations and extra usage examples.
A huge library of videos on all sorts of topics mean that you can always find something interesting to watch. And, since videos are organized by learning level, you can get challenge without frustration.
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Check it out with the free trial today. You’ll get more confident about how to use these German pronouns—and many other aspects of speaking German—as you absorb real, native speech through the videos and practice sessions on FluentU.
Make German Pronouns All Yours! 10 Memory-friendly Steps to Learn German Pronouns in Every Form
Feeling overwhelmed yet? Don’t worry.
Everything seems more overwhelming before you break it down into smaller, more manageable parts. Work your way through these 10 steps and you’ll know your way around German pronouns in no time.
1. Start with Nominative Pronouns
Nominative pronouns are the simplest, most basic pronouns in German, the pronouns that are used as subjects of sentences (I, you, he, she, we and so forth). Here they are:
First person: ich
Second person (informal): du
Third person (he/she/it): er/sie/es
First person plural: wir
Second person plural (informal): ihr
Third person plural: sie
Beispiele (Examples)
Ich bin hier. (I am here.)
Du gehst jetzt. (You go now.)
Das ist der Spiegel. Er ist sehr schön. (That is the mirror. It is very nice.)
2. Compare to Accusative Pronouns
But many sentence constructions call for cases other than nominative. For example, the accusative case is used when the pronoun is the object of the sentence.
Note that several of the accusative pronouns are the same as the nominative pronouns.
The accusative pronouns are:
First person: mich
Second person (informal): dich
Third person (he/she/it): ihn/sie/es
First person plural: uns
Second person plural (informal): euch
Third person plural (formal): sie
Beispiele (Examples)
Das Getränk ist für dich. (The drink is for you.)
Sie hasst uns. (She hates us.)
3. Add the Dative Pronouns
Dative pronouns are more of a jump from nominative than accusative pronouns. They’re used as the indirect object in a sentence (for example, if someone is doing something to someone else), and they are:
First person: mir
Second person (informal): dir
Third person (he/she/it): ihm/ihr/ihm
First person plural: uns
Second person plural (informal): euch
Third person plural (formal): ihnen
Beispiele (Examples)
Ich folge ihnen. (I follow them.)
Wir helfen euch. (We are helping you.)
4. Learn Dependent Possessive Pronouns in the Nominative Case
Have you nailed the personal pronouns in German? Have you figured out how to seamlessly switch from nominative to accusative to dative?
Make sure you have the first three steps down and, once you’re ready, move on to the dependent possessive pronouns.
The dependent possessive pronouns are for situations where you want to say that something belongs to you or to someone else. “That’s my book” or “That’s his car.”
Just like with the personal pronouns, you should start by learning the nominative versions of these German possessive pronouns. Remember, the endings change based on whether the following noun is masculine, feminine, neutral or plural.
But luckily, in the nominative case, masculine and neutral pronouns follow the same rules, and feminine and plural pronouns follow the same rules.
ich
Masculine and neutral: mein
Feminine and plural: meine
du
Masculine and neutral: dein
Feminine and plural: deine
er
Masculine and neutral: sein
Feminine and plural: seine
sie
Masculine and neutral: ihr
Feminine and plural: ihre
es
Masculine and neutral: sein
Feminine and plural: seine
wir
Masculine and neutral: unser
Feminine and plural: unsere
ihr
Masculine and neutral: euer
Feminine and plural: eure
sie
Masculine and neutral: ihr
Feminine and plural: ihre
Beispiele (Examples)
Wo ist dein Hemd? (Where is your shirt?)
Hier ist unser Haus. (Here is our house.)
5. Learn Dependent Possessive Pronouns in the Accusative Case
Knowing possessive pronouns in the accusative case is extremely important. You’ll often use the accusative case when talking about your possessions since the verb “to have” takes accusative.
Unfortunately, neutral deviates from masculine in the accusative case, but don’t let that deter you. The accusative dependent possessive pronouns are:
ich
Masculine: meinen
Neutral: mein
Feminine and plural: meine
du
Masculine: deinen
Neutral: dein
Feminine and plural: deine
er
Masculine: seinen
Neutral: sein
Feminine and plural: seine
sie
Masculine: ihren
Neutral: ihr
Feminine and plural: ihre
es
Masculine: seinen
Neutral: sein
Feminine and plural: seine
wir
Masculine: unseren
Neutral: unser
Feminine and plural: unsere
ihr
Masculine: euren
Neutral: euer
Feminine and plural: eure
sie
Masculine: ihren
Neutral: ihr
Feminine and plural: ihre
Beispiele (Examples)
“Hast du deinen Hund?” (“Do you have your dog?”)
“Ja, ich habe meinen Hund.” (“Yes, I have my dog.”)
6. Learn Dependent Possessive Pronouns in the Dative Case
You know what’s next: dative. Like with personal pronouns, dative pronouns deviate further from the nominative base. In dative, masculine and neutral are once again the same, but feminine and plural are different. The pronouns are:
ich
Masculine and neutral: meinem
Feminine: meiner
Plural: meinen
du
Masculine and neutral: deinem
Feminine: deiner
Plural: deinen
er
Masculine and neutral: seinem
Feminine: seiner
Plural: seinen
sie
Masculine and neutral: ihrem
Feminine: ihrer
Plural: ihren
es
Masculine and neutral: seinem
Feminine: seiner
Plural: seinen
wir
Masculine and neutral: unserem
Feminine: unserer
Plural: unseren
ihr
Masculine and neutral: eurem
Feminine: eurer
Plural: euren
sie
Masculine and neutral: ihrem
Feminine: ihrer
Plural: ihren
Beispiele (Examples)
Wir gehen mit meiner Mutter. (We are going with my mother.)
7. Figure out the Genitive
Ah, the genitive: The forgotten German case, in the face of the more prominent nominative, accusative and dative cases.
The genitive is used to indicate possession. Let’s take a look at the genitive possessive pronouns, then examine the case with an example.
ich
Masculine and neutral: meines
Feminine and plural: meiner
du
Masculine and neutral: deines
Feminine and plural: deiner
er
Masculine and neutral: seines
Feminine and plural: seiner
sie
Masculine and neutral: ihres
Feminine and plural: ihrer
es
Masculine and neutral: seines
Feminine and plural: seiner
wir
Masculine and neutral: unseres
Feminine and plural: unserer
ihr
Masculine and neutral: eures
Feminine and plural: eurer
sie
Masculine and neutral: ihres
Feminine and plural: ihrer
Beispiele (Examples)
Das ist das Haus seines Vaters. (That’s his father’s house.)
8. Learn the Independent Possessive Pronouns in the Nominative Case
Have you mastered the dependent possessive pronouns? Once you’ve gotten them down, as well as that tricky genitive case, you can tackle the independent possessive pronouns.
These are the equivalent of saying “mine” or “yours” in English. First, we’ll take a look at the nominative case:
ich
Masculine: meiner
Neutral: meins
Feminine and plural: meine
du
Masculine: deiner
Neutral: deins
Feminine and plural: deine
er
Masculine: seiner
Neutral: seins
Feminine and plural: seine
sie
Masculine: ihrer
Neutral: ihres
Feminine and plural: ihre
es
Masculine: seiner
Neutral: seins
Feminine and plural: seine
wir
Masculine: unserer
Neutral: unseres
Feminine and plural: unsere
ihr
Masculine: eurer
Neutral: eures
Feminine and plural: eure
sie
Masculine: ihrer
Neutral: ihres
Feminine and plural: ihre
Beispiele (Examples)
“Ist das dein Buch?” (“Is that your book?” )
“Ja, das ist meins.” (“Yes, that is mine.”)
9. Learn the Independent Possessive Pronouns in the Accusative Case
Like the other kinds of pronouns, independent possessive pronouns also decline based on whether they appear in the accusative or dative case. The pronouns are:
ich
Masculine: meinen
Neutral: meins
Feminine and plural: meine
du
Masculine: deinen
Neutral: deins
Feminine and plural: deine
er
Masculine: seinen
Neutral: seins
Feminine and plural: seine
sie
Masculine: ihren
Neutral: ihres
Feminine and plural: ihre
es
Masculine: seinen
Neutral: seins
Feminine and plural: seine
wir
Masculine: unseren
Neutral: unseres
Feminine and plural: unsere
ihr
Masculine: euren
Neutral: eures
Feminine and plural: eure
sie
Masculine: ihren
Neutral: ihres
Feminine and plural: ihre
Beispiele (Examples)
“Hast du meine Zeitung?” (“Do you have my newspaper?”)
“Nein, ich habe seine.” (“No, I have his.”)
10. Learn the Independent Possessive Pronouns in the Dative Case
At last, the final step: The dative independent possessive pronouns, which are:
ich
Masculine and neutral: meinem
Feminine: meiner
Plural: meinen
du
Masculine and neutral: deinem
Feminine: meiner
Plural: deinen
er
Masculine and neutral: seinem
Feminine: seiner
Plural: seinen
sie
Masculine and neutral: ihrem
Feminine: ihrer
Plural: ihren
es
Masculine and neutral: seinem
Feminine: seiner
Plural: seinen
wir
Masculine and neutral: unserem
Feminine: unserer
Plural: unseren
ihr
Masculine and neutral: eurem
Feminine: eurer
Plural: euren
sie
Masculine and neutral: ihrem
Feminine: ihrer
Plural: ihren
Beispiele (Examples)
“Geht ihr in eure Wohnung?” (“Are you going to your house?”)
“Nein, wir gehen in deine!” (“No, we’re going to yours!”)
German pronouns can be tricky, but if you follow these steps we’ve laid out here and learn the pronouns bit by bit, you’ll be talking about yours, mine and ours in no time at all.
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
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