Personalpronomen (Who?)

Words like "ich" (I) and "du" (you) are called personal pronouns. We use them to indicate the person we are talking about - either ourselves or someone else.

Possessivpronomen (Whose)

To say what belongs to whom we use the following words

• Mein/e means my.
• Dein/e means your.
• Sein/e means his.
• Ihr/e means her.

⚠️ When "mein", "dein", etc. refer to a feminine word, we need to add the ending -e. E.g. seine Mutter (his mother).

When the person or thing belonging to a possessive adjective has already been mentioned, or is clear within the context, we can replace it with a possessive pronoun. Possessive pronouns express possession quicker and with a stronger emphasis on who the owner is.

Possessivartikel

Possessivartikel requires subject

Possessivpronomen

Used without subject

Possessivpronomen Deklination

example provided for mein

To form the possessive pronoun, we add a different ending to the possessive adjectives we've learned previously, depending on the gender of the noun we want to replace. The feminine form stays the same.

Remember that the articles of all nouns change to the feminine article "die" in the plural! We therefore use feminine possessive pronoun to replace plural nouns.

Demonstrativpronomen (demonstrative pronouns)

Demonstrative pronouns in German are used to point out specific people or things. They can be translated as "this," "that," "these," or "those" in English. They emphasize or specify something and agree in gender, number, and case with the noun they replace or refer to.

Other demonstrative pronouns

• der, die, das – This/that
• solcher, solche, solches – Such
• derselbe, dieselbe, dasselbe – The same

Reflexivpronomen (Reflexive pronouns)

A lot of German verbs can use reflexive pronouns, but some require them. These verbs are called Reflexive verbs and are usually given with the reflexive pronoun "sich" (oneself) in the infinitive form.

• sich anziehen (to get dressed - literally: to dress oneself)
• sich rasieren (to shave - literally: to shave oneself)
• sich beeilen (to hurry, literally - to hurry oneself up)
• sich konzentrieren (to focus - literally: to focus oneself)

The reflexive pronoun we use depends on the person doing the action. We add the reflexive pronoun right after the conjugated verb in a sentence.

We can actually use reflexive pronouns with more than just reflexive verbs. In a sentence, reflexive pronouns can be direct or indirect objects. When they are direct objects they are in the accusative case; when they are indirect objects they are in the dative case.

The indirect object is the person or thing that "receives" the result of the action. As an indirect object, a dative reflexive pronoun does not have to correspond with the person or thing doing the action. It simply shows the recipient of the action.

Relative pronouns

We can use "Relativpronomen" (relative pronouns) to refer back to a person or a thing we've previously mentioned. This is useful when we want to add some extra information or clarify who or what we're talking about.

Each relative pronoun has the same gender and number as the noun mentioned at the beginning of the sentence.

• Der Lehrer, der seit einem Jahr an unserer Schule ist, kommt aus Spanien. (The teacher who's been at our school for a year is from Spain.)
• Meine Freundin, die heute Geburtstag hat, feiert am Wochenende. (My friend whose birthday it is today celebrates at the weekend.)
• Das Abendessen, das wir bestellt haben, sieht lecker aus. (The dinner that we ordered looks delicious.)

"Relativpronomen" (relative pronouns) introduce new additional information in short sub-clauses that we call relative clauses.

We add them right after the person or thing they refer to, and separate them from the main sentence with commas.

relative clauses have a slightly different order

Accusative pronouns

We use the accusative to mark the person or thing affected by action in a sentence.

In accusative case pronouns have the same form as the definite accusative article

Created: 25 Aug 2022

Last Update: 10 Sep 2024