German Personal Pronouns


German personal pronouns are easy to remember and they are almost identical to those in English.
Personal Pronouns
German
English
Example
Nominative Singular
ich
I
Ich komme aus Berlin. (I come from Berlin)
du
you (informal)
Wie alt bist du? (How old are you?)
er
he
Wer ist er? (Who is he?)
sie
she
Wo ist sie? (Where is she?)
es
it
Was ist es? (What it is?)
Sie
you (formal)
Woher kommen Sie? (Where are you from?)

Formal "Sie" is same as infinitive and plural conjugation.
Nominative Plural
Wir
we
Wir gehen ins kino. (We are going to conema)
ihr
you guys (informal)
Wohnt ihr da? (Do you guys live here?)
sie
they
Woher kommen sie? (Where are they from?)

Plural conjugation is same as infinitive and formal "Sie".
Sie
you (plural)
Woher kommen Sie? (Where are you:all come from?)

Same as infinitive and formal "Sie".

Now we will try to use just learned German personal pronouns with some basic verbs.


The infinitive form of verbs looks like this: “root”+en. For example – lernen, wohnen, kommen:


  • First-person singular is ich. Generally the form of verb is “root“+e. Ich lerne, ich wohne, ich komme.
  • Second-person singular – du – informal. “root”+st. Du lernst, du wohnst, du kommst.
  • Second-person singular+plural – Sie – formal. Same as infinitive. Sie lernen, wohnen, kommen.
  • Third-person singular (he, she, it) – er, sie, es. “root”+t. Er/sie/es lernt, wohnt, kommt.
  • First-person plural (we) – wir. Same as infinitive. Wir lernen, wohnen, kommen.
  • Second-person plural-informal (you guys) – ihr. “first-person sing.”+t. Irh lernt, wohnt, kommt.
  • Second-person plural (you) – sie. Same as infinitive. Wir lernen, wohnen, kommen.
This is a very general rule of using German personal pronouns with verbs. There are exceptions but first you need to get used to basics.
Happy learning!


Quick note about “you” in German. Unlike English, German has formal “you” – Sie and informal (familiar) – du. You have to remember it and try not to forget about it. We’ll speak about it in the next lessons but here is a simple rule: Use “du” if you know person good or he asked you to call him so. Otherwise, use “Sie”.

We’ll show German personal pronouns in the table below and they will be in the nominative case. There are other cases as well but we need to know the basics first.

Previous
Next Post »