How German Personal Pronouns Change with Case

German Personal Pronouns

German Pronouns

German personal pronouns are a little more complicated than in English (no surprise there!). It can be tricky to get to grips with but learning the different forms is a vital step in learning the German language. The form that the personal pronoun takes is dependent on the case of the sentence. The table below will show you which form fits with which case. Learn and enjoy the German language with Jabbalab! 🙂

 

Personal Pronouns and the Cases

Pronoun Nominative Accusative Dative Genitive
ich ich mich mir mein
du du dich dir dein
er / sie / es er / sie / es ihn / sie / es ihm / ihr / ihm sein / ihr / sein
wir wir uns uns unser
ihr ihr euch euch euer
sie / Sie sie / Sie sie / Sie ihnen / Ihnen ihr / Ihr

The genitive case is almost never used in a personal pronoun situation as the genitive case by its nature relates to possesion (whose…). Therefore the above table has the genitive possesive adjectives instead of the personal pronouns. If you want to find out more about them read our blog German Possessive Adjectives.

A Few Examples of the German Personal Pronoun

Let’s have a look at some examples to help cement the idea of the German personal pronoun. We have put questions after the sentences to show you why the sentence is that specific case.


The Nominative Case:

Du spielst heute Fußball. (You play football today.) ⇨ Who plays football?

Er singt ein Lied. (He sings a song.) ⇨ Who sings a song?

Wir kochen gerne. (We like cooking.) ⇨ Who likes cooking?


The Accusative Case:

Ich sehe dich. (I see you.) ⇨ Who do I see?

Ich liebe euch alle. (I love you all.) ⇨ Who do I love?

Sie mögen uns. (They like us.) ⇨ Who do they like?


The Dative Case:

Ich gebe ihm einen Kuss. (I give him a kiss) ⇨ Who did I give a kiss to?

Ich helfe ihr beim Putzen. (I help her to clean.) ⇨ Who did I give help to?

Er bringt mir ein Glas Wein. (He is getting me a glass of wine.) ⇨ Who did he give a glass wine to?


The Genitive Case:

Das ist mein Haus. (That’s my house) ⇨ Whose house is it?

Das ist ihr Auto. (That’s her car.) ⇨ Whose car is it?

Sein Handy ist kaputt. (His mobile is broken.) ⇨ Whose mobile is broken?

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