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 Learn German

German Alphabet and Pronunciation

The Alphabet

Letter	Pronounced Like	Pronounced in a Word Like	Examples of German Words
A/a	ah	father (long variant)	Apfel (apple)
		nut (short variant)	Kurzhantel (dumbbell)
B/b	beh	beer (if “b” is at the beginning of a word)	Bier (beer)
		cup (if “b” is at the end of a word)	Korb (basket)
C/c	tseh	kitchen	Croissant (croissant)
		*this letter is most commonly found in consonant clusters (discussed later)
D/d	deh	dad ( if “d” is at the beginning of a word)	Donut (donut)
		pat (if “d” is at the end of a word)	Rad (wheel)
E/e	eh	bay (long variant)	egal (no matter)
		met (short variant)	Netz (net)
F/f	eff	father	Flugzeug (airplane)
G/g	geh	goat (if “g” is at the beginning of a word)	Glas (glass)
		thick (if “g” is at the end of a word)	richtig (correct)
H/h	hah	ham (if “h” is at the beginning of a word)	Hund (dog)
		ah (if “h” comes after a vowel it is silent)	eher (rather)
I/i	ee	be (long variant)	Igel (hedgehog)
		bit (short variant)	Igitt! (Yuck!)
J/j	yot	yes	Jacke (jacket)
K/k	kah	kite	Kirsche (cherry)
L/l	ell	lion	Lupe (magnifying glass)
M/m	em	Matthew	Mond (moon)
N/n	en	nice	Note (school grade)
O/o	oh	hope (long variant)	Opal (orange fruit)
		bun (short variant	Flotte (fleet)
P/p	peh	panda	Pilz (mushroom)
Q/q	koo	Rockville	Quadrat (square)
		*the letter “q” is always paired in spelling with a “u” and is pronounced like “kv” and not “kw” (like in English)
R/r	air	rhombus (if “r” is at the beginning of a word)	Regen (rain)
		father (if “r” is at the end of a word)	Lehrer (teaher)
S/s	es	Zack (if a single “s”)	Segelboot (sailboat)
		pass (if a double “ss”)	Fitness (fitness)
T/t	teh	Taylor Swift	Tee (tea)
U/u	ooh	move (long variant)	Uhr (watch)
		bush (short variant)	kaputt (broken)
V/v	fow	funny	Vogel (bird)
W/w	veh	velociraptor	Wolke (cloud)
X/x	ix	Mexico	Xylophon (xylophone)
Y/y	oopsilohn	goofy (if the word is from Greek)	Physik (physics)
		lobby (if the word is from English)	Hobby (hobby)
Z/z	tset	bets	Zahn (tooth)
Ä/ä	eh	May (long variant)	Äpfel (apples)
		let (short variant)
Ü/ü	ooh	few	Überraschung (surprise)
Ö/ö	ouh	purr	Österreich (Austria)
ß	eszett	pass	Fußball (football/soccer)

The “Standard” Vowels

A

• Long: pronounced like the “a” in father : Vater (father)

• Short: pronounced like the “u” in butt : Schatten (shadow)

E

• Long: pronounced like the “a” in pay : Leben (life)

• Short: pronounced like the “e” in bet : nett (nice)

I

• Long: pronounced like the “ea” in sea : Island (Iceland)

• Short: pronounced like the “i” in fin : kicken (to play soccer)

O

• Long: pronounced like the “o” in slope : Oberfläche (surface)

• Short: pronounced like the “o” in ton : trotz (despite)

U

• Long: pronounced like the “u” tune : Unterschied (difference)

• Short: pronounced like the “u” in push : putzen (to clean up)

The Accented Vowels

Ä

• Long: pronounced similar to the “a” in bay. The tongue should be lower in the mouth, and the lips wider : Ärgerniss (an annoyance)

• Short: pronounced similar to the “e” in net : Bäckerei (bakery)

Ö

• Long: pronounced similar to the “u” in purr. The lips should be round and open, as if you are balancing a marble between your lips : Österreich (Austria)

• Short: in this case, the pronunciation of the short vowel is essentially a shorter (in terms of duration) pronunciation of the long vowel. It is a bit sharper, but the sound should be nearly identical : Vorhängeschlösser (padlocks)

Ü

• Long: pronounced like the “e” in pew-pew-pew (if you’re making star wars laser gun noises), or the “e” in few, but with a very narrow hole between rounded lips. You can practice it by pronouncing “U” and narrowing the hole, as if going in for a kiss : über (over)

• Short: again, as in the case of “Ö” above, this is a briefer pronunciation of the long variant : süß (sweet)

Diphthongs and Consonant Clusters

Combo	Pronounced Like	Pronounced in a Word Like	Examples of German Words
ah	aah	pond	Ahnung (idea, clue)
ai	eye	lie	Hai (shark)
au	ow	shout	Auge (eye)
äu	oy	toy	äußerst (utmost)
ei	eye	lie	Feier (party)
eu	oy	toy	Feuer (fire)
ie	ee	bee	Wien (Vienna)
oh	oh	slow	Ohren (ears)
uh	ooh	poo	Uhrzeit (time)
ch	hh	Loch Ness (the Scottish pronunciation)	ich (I)
	ch	Chat (for English words)	Chat (chat, like in a live stream)
	sh	Shoe (for French words)	Chef (boss)
	h	Hair (for exceptions)	Chemie (chemistry)
ck	k	kid	Stock (stick)
dsch	j	jungle	Dschungel (jungle)
ng	ng	singer	Menge (amount)
		*note that the g is a subtle pronunciation, unlike the g in younger
pf	pf	helpful	Apfel (apple)
ph	f	family	Phase (fase/stage)
qu	kv	quickview	Quizabend (trivia night)
sch	sh	shoe	Englisch (English)
sp	shp	pushpin	sparen (to save)
st	sht	schtick	Stadt (city)
th	t	time	These (theory)
tsch	ch	choice	Tschechien (Czech Republic)

Definite and Indefinite Articles

In German, both definite and indefinite articles are used for exactly the same purposes as described above. They are not capitalized, unlike the nouns which follow them, and take the following forms:

Masculine

Artikel	Article	Beispiel	Example
der	the	der Hut	the hat
ein	a	ein Berg	a mountain
dieser	this	dieser Affe	this monkey
jener	that	jener Planet	that planet

Feminine

Artikel	Article	Beispiel	Example
die	the	die Banane	the banana
eine	a	eine Ehre	an honor
diese	this	diese Stadt	this city
jene	that	jene Welt	that world

Neuter

Artikel	Article	Beispiel	Example
das	the	das Kind	the kid
ein	a	ein Ehre	an honor
dieses	this	dieses Kleid	this dress
jenes	that	jenes Leben	that life

Plural

Artikel	Article	Beispiel	Example
die	the	die Lieder	the songs
diese	these	diese Omas	these grandmas
jene	those	jene Länder	those countries

Negative Articles

Yet German also has two other types of articles non-existent in English, namely negative articles and zero articles.

Negative articles indicate negation. Whereas in English one would say “there are no” or “I do not like”, using the words “no” and “not”, in German, one employs the negative article, again used according to gender.

Masculine

Artikel	Article	Beispiel	Example
kein	no/not	kein Hut	no hat

Feminine

Artikel	Article	Beispiel	Example
keine	no/not	keine Banane	no banana

Neuter

Artikel	Article	Beispiel	Example
kein	no/not	kein Kind	no kid

Plural

Artikel	Article	Beispiel	Example
keine	the	keine Lieder	no songs

Zero Articles

The concept of the zero article is essentially the use of a noun without an article. While the list is extensive, here are five common scenarios in which zero article is used.

Identifying or Becoming

If you use the verb “sein” or “werden” in some descriptions such as “he is a doctor” or “he wants to become a doctor”, you will not use an article. 

• Mein Bruder ist Arzt. (My brother is a doctor.)

• Mein Bruder will Arzt werden. (My brother wants to become a doctor.)

Locations

Cities, countries, states, and many other geographical locations are not accompanied by an article. 

• Ich lebe in Frankreich. (I live in France.)

• Ich komme aus Moskau. (I come from Moscow.)

Uncountable Food and Drink

Things that are uncountable an are consumed, such as bread, wine, or cheese fit the category of “zero article”.

• Gestern habe ich in Spanien Brot und Käse gegessen. (Yesterday I ate bread and cheese in Spain.) Note: If a quantity word is attributed to the food or drinks, an article comes before the quantity.

• Gestern habe ich in Spanien eine Scheibe Brot und einen Stück Käse gegessen. (Yesterday I ate a slice of bread and a piece of cheese in Spain.)

Materials

If you want to describe the material makeup of an object, zero article is used. 

• Der Tisch ist aus Holz. (The table is wooden.)

• Ich habe die Schuhe aus Leder hergestellt. (I made the shoes from leather.)

Abilities

Abilities combined with verbs are zero articles.

• Ich kann Gitarre spielen. (I can play guitar.)

• Ich lerne Deutsch. (I am learning German.)

• Ich springe jedes Wochenende Fallschirm. (I go parachuting every weekend.)

Declensions of Articles and Nouns

If you haven’t already read the section on declensions, please read that first. Nouns and articles are declined according to all four cases. 

Article Declensions Table

	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	der	die	das	die
Accusative	den	die	das	die
Dative	dem	der	dem	den
Genitive	des	der	des	der

As you can see, many of the declined forms are shared between gender and case.

For example, the nominative masculine, the dative feminine, the genitive feminine, and the genitive plural all share “der”. Thus, it is important to recognize the case (according to context) the article is being used in.

Der Junge gab der Katze der Schwester der Zwillingsbrüder Süßigkeiten. (The boy gave the cat of the sister of the twin brothers candy.)

• Der Junge = nominative masculine
• der Katze = dative feminine
• der Schwester = genitive feminine
• der Zwillingsbrüder = genitive plural

Noun Declensions

Nouns are not quite as changing as other components, such as adjectives, pronouns, and articles. Unfortunately, in the case of noun declensions, a table is not practical, as there are far too many exceptions. However, I will provide some generalizations below.

Please learn the genitive form for each noun you learn to be sure you don’t encounter and falsely learn an exception to these generalizations. 

(1). Feminine nouns normally keep their nominative form for every case

• Nominative: Meine Frau liebt mich. (My wife loves me.)

• Accusative: Ich liebe meine Frau. (I love my wife.)

• Dative: Ich gebe meiner Frau Blumen. (I give my wife flowers.)

• Genitive: Die Blumen meiner Frau sind wunderschön. (My wife’s flowers are beautiful.)

(2). Masculine and Neuter nouns normally have an “-es” or “-s” ending in the genitive case

• Das Feuer des Kamins. (The fire of the fireplace.)
  • der Kamin (nominative) becomes des Kamins (genitive).

• Der Anzug meines Bosses. (My boss’ suit.)
  • der Boss (nominative) becomes des Bosses (genitive).

(3). Masculine animate (people and animals) nouns ending in “-e” will often have an “-n” ending in accusative, dative, and genitive

• Nominative: Der Drache fliegt schnell. (The dragon flies quickly.)

• Accusative: Ich habe den Drachen gesehen. (I saw the dragon.)

• Dative: Die Orks gaben dem Drachen eine Rüstung. (The orcs gave the dragon armor.)

• Genitive: Legolas schoss einen Pfeil in das Auge des Drachens. (Legolas shot an arrow at the dragon’s eye.)

(4). Masculine nouns ending in “-and”, “-ant”, “-ent”, “-ist” will often have an “-en” ending in accusative, dative, and genitive

• Nominative: Mein Lieblingsbassist ist Matthew Freeman. (My favorite bassist is Matthew Freeman.)

• Accusative: Ich habe den Bassisten im Konzert gesehen. (I saw the bassist in concert.)

• Dative: Ich habe dem Bassisten einen Luftkuss zugeworfen. (I blew an air kiss to the bassist.)

• Genitive: Ich glaube, der Bandmitglied des Bassisten hat mich gesehen. (I think the bandmate of the bassist saw me.)

(5). Plural words that do not already have an “-n” or “-s” ending in nominative plural form will have an “-n” ending in the dative form.

• Ich habe gestern mit meinen Brüdern gegessen. (Yesterday, I ate with my brothers.)

• The nominative plural form for “der Bruder” is “die Brüder”, which ends in an “-r” (so not “-n” or “-s”), thus taking an extra “-n” on the end in dative.

German Adjectives: Position, Usage, Endings, and Possessive

The Position of an Adjective

The adjective in German is most often found…

Between the article and the noun

Ein roter Vogel steht auf meinem Schornstein. (A red bird is perched on my chimney.)

• Here, the adjective “rot” with the masculine stem “-er” is found between the indefinite article “ein” and the noun “Vogel”

Before the noun without an article

Ich hätte gerne einen Kuchen ohne rote Kirschen. (I would like a cake without red cherries.)

• The word “ohne” in this sentence is translated as “without”, and is thus a replacement for an article. The adjective is still connected to the noun, “Kuchen”

After an article and without a noun

Die roten sind die besten. (The red ones are the best.)

• While in English one might say “ones” after a descriptive adjective, such as in this example, the adjective in German fulfills both the role of the adjective and the “ones”

With a verb

Ich sehe nur rot. (I only see red.)

• Similar to English, if an adjective follows a verb it can often stand without a noun, if it is meant as a description of a quality that a verb allows to be experienced

Alone

Was ist deine Lieblingsfarbe von Gitarre? Rot. (What is your favorite color of guitar? Red.)

• This may seem obvious, but as in some other languages it isn’t the case, it is worth mentioning. As in English, if a one-word answer is possible, an adjective can stand alone

Ending (Inflections)

Inflections are used to describe the endings applied to the root form of the adjective according to gender and case. The stem form of the adjective most often terminates with a consonant, and the inflections begin with a vowel, and either end with that vowel or apply an additional consonant.

Inflections assume strong, weak, or mixed forms, and additionally, as in example 5 above, sometimes no inflection is necessary.

Strong Inflections

Strong inflections are used in the case of no article, or following a word or phrase that is non-inflectable itself, such as “ein bisschen” (a little).

Here are the endings for strong inflections.

Strong Inflections Suffix Table

Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	er	e	es	e
Accusative	en	e	es	e
Dative	em	er	em	en
Genitive	en	er	en	er

Examples

1. Ich trinke nur frisches Wasser. (I only drink fresh water.) – frisch takes the neuter accusative strong inflection ending, as there is no article and Wasser is neuter
2. Ich gebe nur höflichen Kindern Süßigkeiten. (I only give candy to polite children.) – höflich takes the plural dative strong inflection ending, as there is no article and Kinder is plural
3. Meine Mutter hat ein paar nutzlose Abos. (My mom has a few useless subscriptions.) – nutzlos takes the plural accusative strong inflection ending, as “ein paar” is non-inflectable and Abos is plural

Weak Inflections

Weak inflections are used after a direct article, or a direct indicating phrase.

Table of Words Necessitating Weak Inflections

Deutsch	English
der	the
alle	all
beide	both
derjenig-	the one
derselb-	the same
dies-	this
jed-	that
jeglich-	any
jen-	every
manch-	some
solch-	such
welch-	which

Note: Each of these includes all gender and declined forms

Weak Inflections Suffix Table

Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	e	e	e	en
Accusative	en	e	e	en
Dative	en	en	en	en
Genitive	en	en	en	en

Examples

1. Die schwarze Katze bringt Unglück. (The black cat is unlucky.) – schwarz takes the feminine nominative weak inflection ending, because the noun Katze (cat) is feminine, descriptions with “sein” (to be) necessitate nominative, and the adjective schwarz is preceded by a direct article
2. Das Auto gehört denselben störenden Teenagern, deren Hund in meinen Garten kackt. (That car belongs to the same pestering teens whose dog poos on my yard.) – störend takes the plural dative weak inflection ending, as the verb gehören necessitates dative, störend is preceded by a word necessitating the weak inflection (denselben), and Teenagern is plural
3. Solche charmanten jungen Männer wie du werden keine Probleme haben, die richtige Frau zu finden. (Such gentlemanly young men like you will have no problem finding a suitable wife.) – both charmant and jung take the plural nominative weak inflection ending, as they follow the word “solch” (such)

Mixed Inflections

Mixed inflections are used in the case of an indirect article, or a possessive.

Mixed Inflections Suffix Table

Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	er	e	es	en
Accusative	en	e	es	en
Dative	en	en	en	en
Genitive	en	en	en	en

Examples

1. Ich liebe deinen schwarzen Hut! (I love your black hat!) – schwarz takes the masculine accusative mixed inflection ending, as the noun Hut (hat) is masculine, the verb lieben (to love) necessitates accusative, and the adjective schwarz follows a possessive

German Articles: Definite, Indefinite, Negative, and Zero

Definite and Indefinite Articles

In German, both definite and indefinite articles are used for exactly the same purposes as described above. They are not capitalized, unlike the nouns which follow them, and take the following forms:

Masculine

Artikel	Article	Beispiel	Example
der	the	der Hut	the hat
ein	a	ein Berg	a mountain
dieser	this	dieser Affe	this monkey
jener	that	jener Planet	that planet

Feminine

Artikel	Article	Beispiel	Example
die	the	die Banane	the banana
eine	a	eine Ehre	an honor
diese	this	diese Stadt	this city
jene	that	jene Welt	that world

Neuter

Artikel	Article	Beispiel	Example
das	the	das Kind	the kid
ein	a	ein Ehre	an honor
dieses	this	dieses Kleid	this dress
jenes	that	jenes Leben	that life

Plural

Artikel	Article	Beispiel	Example
die	the	die Lieder	the songs
diese	these	diese Omas	these grandmas
jene	those	jene Länder	those countries

Negative Articles

Yet German also has two other types of articles non-existent in English, namely negative articles and zero articles.

Negative articles indicate negation. Whereas in English one would say “there are no” or “I do not like”, using the words “no” and “not”, in German, one employs the negative article, again used according to gender.

Masculine

Artikel	Article	Beispiel	Example
kein	no/not	kein Hut	no hat

Feminine

Artikel	Article	Beispiel	Example
keine	no/not	keine Banane	no banana

Neuter

Artikel	Article	Beispiel	Example
kein	no/not	kein Kind	no kid

Plural

Artikel	Article	Beispiel	Example
keine	the	keine Lieder	no songs

Zero Articles

The concept of the zero article is essentially the use of a noun without an article. While the list is extensive, here are five common scenarios in which zero article is used.

Identifying or Becoming

If you use the verb “sein” or “werden” in some descriptions such as “he is a doctor” or “he wants to become a doctor”, you will not use an article. 

• Mein Bruder ist Arzt. (My brother is a doctor.)

• Mein Bruder will Arzt werden. (My brother wants to become a doctor.)

Locations

Cities, countries, states, and many other geographical locations are not accompanied by an article. 

• Ich lebe in Frankreich. (I live in France.)

• Ich komme aus Moskau. (I come from Moscow.)

Uncountable Food and Drink

Things that are uncountable an are consumed, such as bread, wine, or cheese fit the category of “zero article”.

• Gestern habe ich in Spanien Brot und Käse gegessen. (Yesterday I ate bread and cheese in Spain.) Note: If a quantity word is attributed to the food or drinks, an article comes before the quantity.

• Gestern habe ich in Spanien eine Scheibe Brot und einen Stück Käse gegessen. (Yesterday I ate a slice of bread and a piece of cheese in Spain.)

Materials

If you want to describe the material makeup of an object, zero article is used. 

• Der Tisch ist aus Holz. (The table is wooden.)

• Ich habe die Schuhe aus Leder hergestellt. (I made the shoes from leather.)

Abilities

Abilities combined with verbs are zero articles.

• Ich kann Gitarre spielen. (I can play guitar.)

• Ich lerne Deutsch. (I am learning German.)

• Ich springe jedes Wochenende Fallschirm. (I go parachuting every weekend.)

Declensions of Articles and Nouns

If you haven’t already read the section on declensions, please read that first. Nouns and articles are declined according to all four cases. 

Article Declensions Table

Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	der	die	das	die
Accusative	den	die	das	die
Dative	dem	der	dem	den
Genitive	des	der	des	der

As you can see, many of the declined forms are shared between gender and case.

For example, the nominative masculine, the dative feminine, the genitive feminine, and the genitive plural all share “der”. Thus, it is important to recognize the case (according to context) the article is being used in.

Der Junge gab der Katze der Schwester der Zwillingsbrüder Süßigkeiten. (The boy gave the cat of the sister of the twin brothers candy.)

• Der Junge = nominative masculine
• der Katze = dative feminine
• der Schwester = genitive feminine
• der Zwillingsbrüder = genitive plural

German Pronouns: Personal, Possessive, Reflexive, Table, and More

Personal Pronouns

German personal pronouns assume all the forms existent in English, with the addition of the singular formal you “Sie”, the plural formal you “Sie”, and the informal plural you “ihr”. One could argue that in certain regions of the English speaking world, the plural you is translatable as “y’all”, or “you all”.

Before getting to examples, I’ll post the following table, which you should consistently consult while you’re learning and practicing with using personal pronouns.

Personal Pronoun Declension Table

Singular

Nominative		Accusative		Dative
ich	I	mich	me	mir	me
du	you (informal)	dich	you	dir	you
er	he / it	ihn	him / it	ihm	him / it
sie	she / it	sie	her / it	ihr	her / it
es	it	es	it	ihm	it
Sie	you (formal)	Sie	you (formal)	Ihnen	you (formal)

Plural

Nominative		Accusative		Dative
wir	we	uns	us	uns	us
ihr	you all (informal)	euch	you all (informal)	euch	you all (informal)
sie	they	sie	them	ihnen	them
Sie	you all (formal)	Sie	you all (informal)	Ihnen	you all (formal)

Examples

In declining the personal pronouns, it is thus essential to identify both gender and number. Here are a few examples of nouns in the nominative singular form, and how they would be declined.

Der Arzt (the male doctor)

If you use the third person formulation, you would use the masculine form, “er/ihn/ihm”

• Ich mag meinen Arzt. Er ist sehr intelligent. (I like my doctor. He is very intelligent.)

• Magst du ihn auch? (Do you like him as well?)

• Ja, ich vertraue ihm. (Yes, I trust him.)

If you use the second person formulation, you would use the formal “Sie/Sie/Ihnen”, since with a doctor, one generally has a formal relationship

• Wissen Sie, ob eine weitere Impfung notwendig ist? (Do you know if a further immunization is necessary?)

• Wie kann ich Sie am besten kontaktieren? (How can I best contact you?

• Soll ich Ihnen die Bilder per E-Mail senden? (Should I send you the pictures by email?)

Die Katzen (the female cats)

If you use the third person formulation, you would use the plural “sie/sie/ihnen “

• Ich habe drei Katzen, und habe ihnen Namen von Disney Filmen gegeben. (I have three cats, and I gave them names from Disney movies.)

• Sie heißen Tinkerbell, Elsa und Kylo Ren. (They are called Tinkerbell, Elsa, and Kylo Ren.)

• Ich füttere sie mit Hundefutter. (I feed them dog food.)

If you use the second person formulation, you would use the plural informal “ihr/euch/euch”

• Ihr weißt, dass ich euch liebe! (You all know that I love you!)

• Gefällt euch das Hundefutter, das ich euch gebe? (Do you all like the dog food that I give you?)

Das Boot (the boat)

If you use the third person formulation, you would use the neuter “es/es/ihm”

• Das Boot ist enorm! Hast du es gesehen? (The boat is massive! Have you seen it?)

• Ja, es ist tatsächlich groß. (Yes, it is indeed large.)

• Hinter ihm ist der Himmel wunderschön! (Behind it, the sky is gorgeous!)

Possessive Pronouns

Possessive pronouns, or possessives, are used to indicate possession. For example, “my dog” is “mein Hund”. The following table indicates the usage. Note that the declension is based upon the object and not the subject, or in other words, the think that is being possessed, and not the thing that is doing the possessing. 

Possessive Pronoun Declension Table

Masculine

Singular

Nominative		Accusative		Dative		Genitive
mein	my	meinen	my	meinem	my	meines	my
dein	your	deinen	your	deinem	your	deines	your
sein	his	seinen	his	seinem	his	seines	his
ihr	her	ihren	her	ihrem	her	ihres	her
sein	its	seinen	its	seinem	its	seines	its
Ihr	your (formal)	Ihren	your (formal)	Ihrem	your (formal)	Ihres	your (formal)

Plural

Nominative		Accusative		Dative		Genitive
unser	our	unseren	our	unserem	our	unseres	our
euer	y’all’s (informal)	euren	y’all’s (informal)	eurem	y’all’s (informal)	eures	y’all’s (informal)
ihr	their	ihren	their	ihrem	their	ihres	their
Ihr	y’all’s (formal)	Ihren	y’all’s (formal)	Ihrem	y’all’s (formal)	Ihres	y’all’s (formal)

Feminine

Singular

Nominative		Accusative		Dative		Genitive
meine	my	meine	my	meiner	my	meiner	my
deine	your	deine	your	deiner	your	deiner	your
seine	his	seine	his	seiner	his	seiner	his
ihre	her	ihre	her	ihrer	her	ihrer	her
seine	its	seine	its	seiner	its	seiner	its
Ihre	your (formal)	Ihre	your (formal)	Ihrer	your (formal)	Ihrer	your (formal)

Plural

Nominative		Accusative		Dative		Genitive
unsere	our	unsere	our	unserer	our	unserer	our
eure	y’all’s (informal)	eure	y’all’s (informal)	eurer	y’all’s (informal)	eurer	y’all’s (informal)
ihre	their	ihre	their	ihrer	their	ihrer	their
Ihre	y’all’s (formal)	Ihre	y’all’s (formal)	Ihrer	y’all’s (formal)	Ihrer	y’all’s (formal)

Neuter

Singular

Nominative		Accusative		Dative		Genitive
mein	my	mein	my	meinem	my	meines	my
dein	your	dein	your	deinem	your	deines	your
sein	his	sein	his	seinem	his	seines	his
ihr	her	ihr	her	ihrem	her	ihres	her
sein	its	sein	its	seinem	its	seines	its
Ihr	your (formal)	Ihr	your (formal)	Ihrem	your (formal)	Ihres	your (formal)

Plural

Nominative		Accusative		Dative		Genitive
unser	our	unser	our	unserem	our	unseres	our
euer	y’all’s (informal)	euer	y’all’s (informal)	eurem	y’all’s (informal)	eures	y’all’s (informal)
ihr	their	ihr	their	ihrem	their	ihres	their
Ihr	y’all’s (formal)	Ihr	y’all’s (formal)	Ihrem	y’all’s (formal)	Ihres	y’all’s (formal)

Plural

Singular

Nominative		Accusative		Dative		Genitive
meine	my	meine	my	meinen	my	meiner	my
deine	your	deine	your	deinen	your	deiner	your
seine	his	seine	his	seinen	his	seiner	his
ihre	her	ihre	her	ihren	her	ihrer	her
seine	its	seine	its	seinen	its	seiner	its
Ihre	your (formal)	Ihre	your (formal)	Ihren	your (formal)	Ihrer	your (formal)

Plural

Nominative		Accusative		Dative		Genitive
unsere	our	unsere	our	unseren	our	unserer	our
eure	y’all’s (informal)	eure	y’all’s (informal)	euren	y’all’s (informal)	eurer	y’all’s (informal)
ihre	their	ihre	their	ihren	their	ihrer	their
Ihre	y’all’s (formal)	Ihre	y’all’s (formal)	Ihren	y’all’s (formal)	Ihrer	y’all’s (formal)

Please note that when “euer” has a suffix, like the feminine “eure”, the “e” before the “r” is removed (it is NOT “euere”).

Examples

(1). Habe ich schon die Frau deines Vaters kennengelernt? (Have I already met the wife of your father?)

The “deines” is the genitive form of the “you” possessive pronoun. Note that the genitive can also be translated with an “of” before the possessive

(2). Ihr Vater gab seiner Frau Blumen. (??? father gave his mother flowers.)

Here is a good example of “Ihr” leading to potential confusion. When at the beginning of a sentence, “Ihr” will always be capitalized, so it could imply that the possessor is “you” (formal), “you all” (informal), “they”, or “you all” (formal). Thus, the context is important. The “seiner” later in the sentence is formed as a result of the father being a male (“sein” is the stem) and the mother being a female in dative (“-er” is the addition to the “sein” stem)

(3). Willst du meinen Hund, mein Schwein, meine Katze, oder meine Papageien sehen? (Do you want to see my dog, my pig, my cat, or my parrots?)

In this example, the accusative form of the “mein” (my) stem is used for each gender: der Hund (masculine), das Schwein (neuter), die Katze (feminine), and die Papageien (plural)

Reflexive Pronouns

German reflexive pronouns take only two cases (accusative and dative) and are used in conjunction with verbs. In English, reflexive pronouns can be illustrated by the “myself” after verbs, like “I ask myself every morning why I don’t switch my job,” but cases like this in English are seemingly rare. In German, there are many situations in which reflexive verbs require a reflexive pronoun, and some situations in which a reflexive pronoun is optional.

The table below illustrates how these reflexive pronouns are used:

Reflexive Pronoun Declension Table

Singular

Accusative		Dative
mich	myself	mir	myself
dich	yourself	dir	yourself
sich	himself	sich	himself
sich	herself	sich	herself
sich	itself	sich	itself
sich	yourself (formal)	sich	yourself (formal)

Plural

Accusative		Dative
uns	ourselves	uns	ourselves
euch	yourselves (plural) (informal)	euch	yourselves (plural) (informal)
sich	themselves	sich	themselves
sich	yourselves (plural) (formal)	sich	yourselves (plural) (formal)

Note that the “sich” plural forms are not capitalized, unlike other forms like “Ihr” and “Sie”.

Examples

1. Ich frage mich, warum er so denkt. (I wonder why he thinks that.)

2. Hast du dir diese Idee schon überlegt? (Have you considered that idea?)

3. Wir haben uns gestern im Prater getroffen. (We met up yesterday at Prater.)

4. Bemüht euch, immer! (Always make an effort!)

5. Sie haben sich Urlaub verdient. (You have earned a vacation.)

Here is a list of reflexive verbs considered most critical for the beginning levels due to their high frequency and relevance. There are thousands more that exist. They are divided by accusative (first) and dative (last).

Frequency Table of Reflexive Verbs

Accusative

Deutsch	English
sich anziehen	to get dressed
sich ausziehen	to undress
sich baden	to bathe
sich befinden	to be located
sich beschweren (über)	to complain
sich duschen	to shower
sich freuen	to look forward to
sich fühlen	to feel
sich informieren	to inform youself
sich interessieren	to be interested in
sich kämmen	to comb yourself
sich legen	to lie (position)
sich rasieren	to shave
sich setzen	to sit
sich stellen	to stand
sich treffen	to meet
sich verabschieden	to say goodbye
sich verletzen	to get injured
sich vorstellen	to introduce youself
sich waschen	to wash yourself

Dative

Deutsch	English
sich die Haare bürsten	to brush your hair
sich die Haare kämmen	to comb your hair
sich etwas anziehen	to put something on
sich etwas ausziehen	to take something off
sich etwas putzen	to clean something (on yourself)
sich wehtun	to hurt yourself

Demonstrative Pronouns

These pronouns can only be used after something was specified and you’d like to refer specifically to that object or subject. For an English example, “I don’t get your reference, because I haven’t seen that movie.”, as a reply to “You remind me of the boss from Office Space!”.

Demonstrative Pronoun Declension Table

This

Masculine	Neuter	Feminine	Plural
Nominative	dieser	dieses	diese	diese
Accusative	diesen	dieses	diese	diese
Dative	diesem	diesem	dieser	diesen
Genitive	dieses	dieses	dieser	dieser

That

Masculine	Neuter	Feminine	Plural
Nominative	jener	jenes	jene	jene
Accusative	jenen	jenes	jene	jene
Dative	jenem	jenem	jener	jenen
Genitive	jenes	jenes	jener	jener

Note that while the “jener” form exists and is always valid to use in a “that” situation, there is a prevailing colloquial preference for the usage of “dieser” in many situations. 

Examples

1. Diese Gitarre ist mein Favorit. (This guitar is my favorite.)

2. Man sagt, dass es in diesen/jenen Bergen Trolle leben! (It’s rumored that trolls live in those mountains!)

3. Ich habe diesen Mann schon mal gesehen. (I have already seen that man.)

Relative Pronouns

These are used in the place of a superfluous rementioning of information previously mentioned, for example “My mom is very talented, so I like to compliment her. She can …” instead of “My mom is very talented, so I like to compliment my mom. My mom can…”.

In German, they function the same way as in English. Yet, they abide by declination rules and also sometimes change the word order, necessitating a verb to be shifted to the end of the clause. 

Relative Pronoun Declension Table

Masculine	Neuter	Feminine	Plural
Nominative	der	das	die	die
Accusative	den	das	die	die
Dative	dem	dem	der	denen
Genitive	dessen	dessen	deren	deren

Examples

(1). Taylor Swift, die meine Lieblingskünstlerin ist, kommt nach München! (Taylor Swift, who is my favorite artist, is coming to Munich!)

• “die” is in the nominative feminine form, as Taylor Swift is a female and is being described with the verb “sein”

• See how the “ist” (conjugated form of “sein” is shifted to the end of the clause

(2). Der Song, den ich gestern gehört habe, heißt Blank Space. (The song that I heard yesterday is called Blank Space.)

• “den” is in the masculine accusative form, because the masculine-gender “Song” is being listened to

• “habe” is shifted to the end of the clause

(3). Ich habe die Mutter getroffen, deren lärmende Kinder in der Wohnung neben mir wohnen. (I met the mother whose noisy kids live in the apartment next to me.)

• “deren” is in the feminine genitive, since “die Mutter” is a feminine noun and the relative pronoun indicates possession/relationship (genitive)

• “wohnen” is shifted to the end of the clause

Interrogative Pronouns

The interrogative pronouns wer, was, wem, wen and wessen have direct English equivalents.

Interrogative Pronoun Declension Table

Deutsch	English
Nominative	wer / was	who / what
Accusative	wen / was	who / what
Dative	wem	who
Genitive	wessen	whose

Examples

1. Wer hat das gesagt? (Who said that?)

2. Wem hast du das gesagt? (To whom did you say that?)

3. Du hast über wen gesprochen? (Who did you speak about?)

4. Wessen Auto ist das? (Whose car is that?)

Indefinite Pronouns

Hence the name, these pronouns are describing something which is rather non-specific. In English, this is “something, anything, nothing”, or “someone, everyone, each”.

Here are the most common indefinite pronouns and how to use them.

Man

Do not confuse this with Mann (the man). This indefinite pronoun is used to describe a general person (like the English “one”, as in “one can”, or “you”, as in “you can’t simply…”).

This indefinite pronoun only takes the form of “man” in the nominative case, and will assume different forms in the other cases.

Indefinite Pronoun Declension Table

Nominative	man
Accusative	einen
Dative	einem
Genitive	eines

Examples

1. Kann man hier essen? (Can one eat here?)

2. Die Folter macht einen verrueckt. (Torture makes one/you crazy.)

3. Die Arbeitserlaubnis wird einem erst nach der Antragseinreichung gegeben. (The work permit will be given to one/you after the submission of the submission form.)

4. Das Militär gedenkt eines für seinen Dienst. (The military commemorates one for his service.)

Jedes/Jede/Jeder

This is the German “each” or “every”, depending on the context. To exemplify the translatable flexibility, here are a few sample sentences.

Jedes/Jede/Jeder Declension Table

Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	jeder	jede	jedes	–
Genitive	jedes/jeden	jeder	jedes/jeden	–
Dative	jedem	jeder	jedem	–
Accusative	jeden	jede	jedes	–

Examples

1. Jeder muss helfen. (Everyone must help.)

2. Jede Frau weiß, dass eine Schwangerschaft schwierig ist. (Every woman knows that pregnancy is difficult.)

3. Jede Frage wurde sorgfältig beantwortet. (Each question was answered carefully.)

A common usage of this pronoun is also paired with the genitive, so…

4. Jeder der Mitarbeiter hat geholfen. (Each of the employees helped.)

5. Jede der Frauen erzählte von ihrer schwierigen Schwangerschaft. (Each of the women spoke about her difficult pregnancy.)

6. Jede der Fragen wurde sorgfältig beantwortet. (Each of the questions was answered carefully.)

Etwas and Nichts

These can be translated to something and nothing (or “anything” in some cases). These two words are not declined and are used just like in English.

Examples

1. Ich habe etwas gesehen. (I saw something.)

2. Wirklich? Ich habe nichts gesehen. (Really? I saw nothing.)

Another common usage of of these indefinite pronouns is with an adjective following. In this case, the adjective is capitalized and takes an extra “-es” at the end. The conjugations of adjectives will be discussed in Adjectives. For now, here are two examples using “süß” (sweet) and “traurig” (sad).

3. Ich möchte etwas Süßes essen. (I want something sweet to eat.)

4. Ich will nichts Trauriges hören. (I don’t want to hear anything sad.)

Jemand and Niemand

These can be translated generally as “somebody” and “nobody”. They are declined, including a genitive form, which means they can also take the meaning of “somebody’s” and “nobody’s”.

Jemand and Niemand Declension Table

Somebody

Nominative	jemand
Genitive	jemandes
Dative	jemandem
Accusative	jemanden

Nobody

Nominative	niemand
Genitive	niemandes
Dative	niemandem
Accusative	niemanden

Note: in dative and accusative, both jemand and niemand sometimes will assume the nominative form. This will occur if an adjective follows the pronoun. Example sentence three and four will exemplify this.

Examples

1.  Das würde ich niemandem sagen. (I wouldn’t tell anyone that.) (I would tell nobody that.)

2. Ich habe jemanden gesehen. (I saw somebody.)

3. Ich brauche jemand Großes, der mir hilft, den Engel am Weihnachtsbaum zu erreichen. (I’m looking for somebody tall to help me reach the angel on the Christmas tree.)
   • Here, the jemand is in accusative but takes the nominative form because the adjective “groß” (tall) follows it

4. Ich würde niemand Fremdem mein Passwort verraten. (I wouldn’t tell anyone unknown/unfamiliar my password.)
   • Here, the niemand is in dative but takes the nominative form because the adjective “fremd” (unfamiliar) follows it

CR   ::   https://www.expatden.com/learn-german/german-clauses/