Pronouns in German change form depending on case, and certain pronouns combine or change when used together, so paying attention to these patterns helps sentences sound natural and meaning stays clear.
Cases
German has four cases: nominative for the subject, accusative for the direct object, dative for the indirect object, and genitive for possession; each case determines the form of articles, nouns, and pronouns in a sentence.
Nominative
The nominative case marks the subject of the sentence—the person or thing performing the action—and is used with subject pronouns like ich, du, er, sie, and es.
Accusative
The accusative case marks the direct object—the person or thing directly receiving the action—and uses pronouns like mich, dich, ihn, sie, and es in that role.
Dative
The dative case marks the indirect object—the recipient or beneficiary of an action—and uses pronouns like mir, dir, ihm, ihr, and ihnen for that function.
Genitive
The genitive case shows possession or close association and is less common in everyday speech; it affects nouns and sometimes pronouns, with forms like meiner and typical usage in formal context.
Pronoun Types
German distinguishes between personal pronouns for concrete people, possessive pronouns for ownership, reflexive pronouns for actions back on the subject, and others like demonstrative and relative pronouns for pointing and linking.
Personal Pronouns
Personal pronouns replace specific people or things and change form based on case; they include examples like ich/mein, du/dein, er/sein, sie/ihr, and es/sein.
Possessive Pronouns
Possessive pronouns show ownership and agree in gender, number, and case with the noun they modify; forms include mein, dein, sein, ihr, unser, and ihr.
Reflexive Pronouns
Reflexive pronouns refer back to the subject when the action affects the same person and appear as forms like mich/mir, dich/dir, sich, uns, and euch depending on case and number.
Pronoun Combinations
When both an indirect and direct object pronoun appear, the indirect (dative) pronoun typically comes first, and certain pronouns combine or change order to sound natural; small pronouns often come before larger ones.
Dative + Accusative
In combinations of dative and accusative pronouns, the dative pronoun normally precedes the accusative, and when both are third-person or when the accusative is es or sie, the order can reverse for emphasis or style.
Double Object Pronouns
Double object pronouns occur when both a dative and an accusative pronoun replace nouns in a sentence; in such cases, short forms like mir, dir, ihm pair with accusative forms like es, sie, or ihn and follow established word order rules.
Dative + Genitive
Combinations of dative and genitive pronouns are rare because genitive is seldom used for possession in spoken German; when needed, pronouns that show possession usually appear as phrases rather than brief forms.
Summary
Mastering German pronoun cases ensures each sentence clearly shows who does what to whom, and learning common pronoun combinations makes speech more fluent and natural; practice with real examples to internalize these patterns.
Last updated: Fri Oct 24, 2025