German Pronouns: The Different Types and How to Use Them

Pronouns are an important but tricky component of any language.

Like articles and adjectives, German pronouns change their form depending on a whole host of grammatical factors.

This post will give you everything you need to know about how to form German pronouns and use them correctly, so let’s get started!

Contents

• Why Can German Pronouns Be Tricky?
• Types of German Pronouns
• • Nominative Pronouns
  • Accusative Pronouns
  • Dative Pronouns
  • Genitive Case
  • Relative Pronouns
  • Dependent Possessive Pronouns
  • Independent Possessive Pronouns 

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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. To use a German pronoun, you must use context to find the case, then know the proper form in each of those cases.
• German possessive pronouns change based on case—and gender. The word “your” changes based on whether it’s your Katze (cat) or your Handy (mobile phone).
• There’s a difference between independent and dependent possessive pronouns, which changes the ending too. What this means is that pronouns can change depending on whether they comes before a noun or whether they are describing a previously mentioned noun. 

You can see all this in action by actively watching German content like movies and TV shows, or through immersion programs like FluentU, which teaches German through authentic videos with interactive captions. 

Types of German Pronouns

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:

Examples:

Ich bin hier. (I am here.)

Du gehst nach Hause. (You go home.) 

Accusative Pronouns

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:

Examples:

Das Getränk ist für dich. (The drink is for you.)

Sie hasst uns. (She hates us.)

Dative Pronouns

Dative pronouns are used as the indirect object in a sentence. We use an indirect object when the accusative object is being given or passed onto another person or thing. (eg; You give a present to someone)

You also just need to use the dative as a rule after certain prepositions, eg; mit (with), nach (to), or certain verbs, eg; helfen (to help), folgen (to follow). 

And these dative pronouns are:

Examples:

        Ich gebe dir den Ball. (I give you the ball.) 

Sie geht mit ihnen ins Kino. (She goes to the movies with them.) 

Wir helfen euch. (We are helping you [plural].)

Genitive Case

The genitive case is mostly used as a way of indicating possession, ie: who does something belong to. 

Examples:

          Das ist der Hund meines Freundes. (That’s my friend’s dog.)

Das ist das Haus seines Vaters. (That’s his father’s house.)

Relative Pronouns

Relative pronouns work like the English “who,” “which,” “what” and “that.”

Relative pronouns are different than most other pronouns because they don’t replace the noun. Rather, they show up later in the sentence and refer back to a noun that was already stated. 

For example, in English we could say “it’s the guy who won the race.” The noun is “the guy” but the relative pronoun “who” reminds us what we’re talking about.

Remember not to forget to put the relative pronoun in the correct case. For example, in the sentence:

           “What’s the name of the dog that you adopted?”

“The dog” is in the nominative in the first clause but in the accusative in the second, we’d therefore need to translate it like so: Wie heißt der Hund, den du adoptiert hast?

So be sure to keep your wits about you with more tricky examples, like verbs that take the dative case. Like in this example with the verb helfen, which always requires the dative case:

Der Mann, dem du geholfen hast, war sehr dankbar. (The man, whom you helped, was very thankful.)           

Also, if you need to use a preposition in the second clause, this needs to come before the relative pronoun, and changes the case accordingly: 

Wer war die Frau, mit der du gesprochen hast? (Who was the woman that you were speaking to?)

You can also see relative pronouns take on the genitive case, which shows possession (whose).

Das Kind, dessen Spielzeug er sucht, ist sein Sohn. (The child whose toy he’s looking for, is his son.) 

The relative pronouns are:

Examples:

          Das ist die Frau, die ich liebe. (That is the woman that I love.) 

Kennst du das Mädchen, das sich das Bein gebrochen hat? (Do you know the girl who broke her leg?)

Der Wagen, den er gestern gekauft hat, ist sehr teuer. (The car that he bought yesterday is very expensive.)

Dependent Possessive Pronouns

The dependent possessive pronouns are for situations where you want to say that something belongs to you or to someone else. They are “dependent” because they always come before a noun: “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.

Nominative Case

Luckily, in the nominative case, masculine and neutral pronouns follow the same rules, and feminine and plural pronouns follow the same rules.

Examples:

Wo ist dein Hemd? (Where is your shirt?)

Hier ist unser Haus. (Here is our house.)

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:

Examples:

Ich liebe meinen Hund! (I love my dog!) 

Haben Sie Ihre Fahrkarte dabei? (Have you got your [formal] ticket with you?)

Dative Case

Like with personal pronouns, dative possessive 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:

Examples:

Wir gehen mit meiner Mutter ins Kino. (We are going to the movies with my mother.)

Gib meinem Mann den Schlüssel. (Give my husband the key.) 

Independent Possessive Pronouns 

Independent possessive pronouns are the equivalent of saying “mine” or “yours” in English. They are “independent” because they are standalone, and do not come before a noun. 

Nominative Case

First, we’ll take a look at the nominative case:

Examples:

Ist das dein Buch? (Is that your book?)

Ja, das ist meins. (Yes, that is mine.)

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:

Examples:

Hast du meinen Koffer? (Do you have my suitcase?)

Nein, ich habe seinen. (No, I have his.)

Dative Case

The dative independent possessive pronouns are:

Examples:

Fahren wir mit meinem Auto? (Are we taking my car?) 

Lieber mit meinem! (I’d prefer to take mine!) 

Now that you know the different types of German pronouns and what they are, you can talk about yours, mine and ours and sound even more fluent!

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)