In this lesson we will talk about pronouns again. Like nouns, they are also declined according to case. To say “me”, “you”, “him”, etc., study the table carefully.
Declension of personal pronouns
Singular | Plural | Polite form | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
No. | ich | du | er | sie | es | wir | ihr | sie | Sie |
Gen. | meiner | deiner | seiner | ihrer | seiner | unser | EUER | ihrer | Ihrer |
Dat. | mir | dir | ihm | ihr | ihm | uns | euch | ihnen | Ihnen |
Akk. | mich | dich | ihn | sie | es | uns | euch | sie | Sie |
The genitive case of pronouns is practically not used; phrases requiring these forms are considered obsolete.
Pronouns in German are used to replace the noun that has already named the object.
For example:
Ich habe eine Schwester. Sie ist plug. - I have a sister. She's smart.
Das ist ein Telefon. Er arbeiten nicht. - This is a phone. He does not work.
Remember! Not all pronouns are used exactly as we are accustomed to using them in Russian. Many German verbs require a specific case of nouns or pronouns after them.
For example, the verb danken is to thank, which requires the dative case, not the accusative case, as in Russian: Ich danke die für alles. - I thank you for everything.
Declension of possessive pronouns
No less important in language are possessive pronouns, which answer the questions “whose?” whose? whose?". Possessive pronouns once evolved from the genitive case form of personal pronouns. The table will help you verify this.
Personal pronoun in one number |
Possessive pronoun | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Singular | Plural | |||
Male gender | Female gender | Middle gender | ||
ich | mein | meine | mein | meine |
du | dein | deine | dein | deine |
er | sein | seine | sein | seine |
sie | ihr | ihre | ihr | ihre |
es | sein | seine | sein | seine |
Sie | Ihr | Ihre | Ihr | Ihre |
The possessive pronouns “sein” and “ihr”, which correspond to the personal pronouns “er” and “sie”, can be translated into Russian as his/her or “yours”. This feature also applies when translating other pronouns.
For example:
Das ist seine Wohnung. Er wohnt in seiner Wohnung. - This is his apartment. He lives in his own apartment.
Das ist mein Buch. Ich lese mein Buch. - It is my book. I'm reading my book.
All possessive pronouns are declined according to case, receiving the same endings as articles. Let's consider this rule using the example of the pronoun “mein”.
Singular | Plural | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Male gender | Female gender | Middle gender | ||
No. | mein Bruder | my kind | mein e Mutter | meine Eltern |
Gen. | mein es Bruders | mein es Kinds | mein er Mutter | mein er Eltern |
Dat. | mein em Bruder | mein em Kind | mein er Mutter | mein en Eltern |
Akk. | mein en Bruder | my kind | mein e Mutter | meine Eltern |
Now do a few exercises to consolidate what you have learned.
Lesson assignments
Exercise 1. Translate the personal pronouns in brackets into German.
1. Ich liebe (you).
2. Ich gebe (to you) meine Telefonnummer.
3. Sie hasse (him).
4. Sie versteht (me)?
5. Ich verstehe (you – polite form) nicht.
6. Ich zeige (im) die Fotos.
7. Mein Freund dankt (me).
8. Sag (to him) bitte deine Adresse.
9. Hilfst du (to us)?
10. Sie sagt es (us –2 liters plural) uns.
Exercise 2. Translate the possessive pronouns in brackets into German. Pay attention to the case and gender of the noun.
1. Sie ist (my) Freundin.
2. Wir lieben (our) Stadt.
3. (his) Schwester ist Studentin.
4. (Their) Wohnung ist teuer.
5. Wo ist (your) Haus?
6. Er schreibt (to one's own - date) Bruder einen Brief.
7. (Yours) Kleid ist sehr schön.
8. Er fragt (her) über die Schule.
9. Wir verkaufen (our) Auto.
10. Die Mutter liest das Buch (its own - date) Tochter.
Answers to exercise 1.
1. Ich liebe dich.
2. Ich gebe dir meine Adresse.
3. Sie hasse ihn.
4. Sie versteht mich.
5. Ich verstehe Sie nicht.
6. Ich zeige sie die Fotos.
7. Mein Freund dankt mir.
8. Sag ihm bitte deine Adresse.
9. Hilfst du euch? 10. Sie sagt es uns.
Answers to exercise 2.
1. Sie ist meine Freundin.
2. Wir lieben unsere Stadt.
3. Seine Schwester ist Studentin.
4. Ihre Wohnung ist teuer.
5. Wo ist dein Haus?
6. Er schreibt ihrem Bruder einen Brief.
7. Dein Kleid ist sehr schön.
8. Er fragt sie über die Schule.
9. Wir verkaufen unser Auto.
10. Die Mutter liest das Buch ihrer Tochter.
German personal pronouns, like Russian ones, are declined. The declension of personal pronouns in German is given in the table. It needs to be learned.
Please note that the table does not include Genitiv personal pronouns because this form is obsolete and is rarely used in modern German.
Exercises on the topic “Declination of personal pronouns in German”
1. Instead of the highlighted nouns, use the corresponding German personal pronouns in Singular or Plural. Do this exercise in writing.
For example: Du fragst Deine Mutter. - Du fragst sie (ee).
Er sucht seine Mappe und seine Karte. - Er sucht sie (theirs).
a) 1. Sein Zimmer ist unten. 2. Der Student wohnt oben. 3. Sie sucht ihr Heft. 4. Meine Schwester fragt den Vater. 5. Er wiederholt die Regel. 6. Der Dozent zeigt diesem Students seine Arbeit. 7. Zeigter seiner Tochter ein Buch?
b) 1. Der Sohn und die Tochter commen heute. 2. Die Mutter sagt ihrer Tochter und ihrem Sohn: "Guten Morgen." 3. Die Studentin sucht ihr Buch und ihr Heft. 4. Student zeigt dem Aspiranten und dem Dosenten seine Arbeit.
2. Complete the sentences with personal pronouns in brackets, using them in the appropriate case. Do it in writing.
1. Dieser Lehrer fragt … nicht oft. (du) 2. Die Studentin antwortet … richtig. (er) 3. Die Tante sagt...: “Ich komme heute um sechs.” (sie they) 4. Er sucht... lange. (wir) 5. Wir bitten…sehr. (Sie) 6. Wem antworten Sie? Ich antworte…, Kinder. (ihr) 7. Lene und Katja schreiben ... oft. (ich) 8. Du antwortest...gern. (sie she)
1. a) 1. es; 2.er; 3.es; 4.ihn; 5.sie; 6.ihm; 7.ihr
b) 1.sie; 2. ihnen; 3.sie; 4. ihnen
2. 1. dich; 2.ihm; 3. ihnen; 4. uns; 5. Sie; 6. euch; 7. mir; 8.ihr
Possessive pronouns answer the question "whose?" and indicate belonging ( my answer; our work, etc.). As in Russian, all personal pronouns in German have corresponding possessives; you need to remember them:
Note that ihr (Ihr) means both “ee” and “their” (“your”).
In Russian, in addition to the listed possessive pronouns, there is one more possessive pronoun mine(own). It is “universal”, i.e. can be used instead of any other possessive pronoun.
I'm visiting theirs (=my) parents every week. My friend visits often theirs (=his) parents. you are visiting yours (=yours) sick friend?
In German there is no such “universal” possessive pronoun. Therefore the value "mine" in German conveyed by one of the possessive pronouns listed above, namely, those which corresponds to the subject's face.
For example:
Ich besuche meine Eltern jede Woche. Mein Freund ( er)besucht seine Eltern oft. Besuchen Sie Ihren kranken Freund?
Task 1. Indicate: a) in which of the following sentences the Russian pronoun “your” corresponds to the German ihr (Ihr):
1. She will finish her work in a month. 2. I haven’t seen my sister for a long time. 3. Do you do your homework in the evening? 4. Oleg helps his family. 5. After college, friends will go to their home village.
b) what possessive pronouns should be used in the remaining sentences.
You can also read about possessive pronouns
Personal pronouns in German
Personal pronouns can be not only the subject of a sentence ( compare: Ich lese Deutsch. Er spricht gut.). They can also answer the questions “to whom?”, “whom?”, i.e. be a complement. You need to remember their forms:
Singular | |||||
Who? | I - ich | you - du | he-er | she - sie | it - es |
to whom? | to me - mir | to you - dir | him - ihm | her - ihr | him - ihm |
whom? | me-mich | you - dich | him - ihn | ee-sie | his - es |
Plural | Polite form | ||||
Who? | we are wir | you - ihr | they - sie | You - Sie | |
to whom? | us - uns | to you - euch | im - ihnen | To you - Ihnen | |
whom? | us - uns | you - euch | them - sie | You - Sie |
Task 2. Indicate which personal pronouns in German can be used instead of the highlighted ones, and how the meaning of the following sentences will change:
1. Geben Sie mir bitte diesels Buch! 2. Ich sehe Sie oft in der Bibliothek.
Please note that in Russian, personal pronouns of the 3rd person answer the question “whom?” ( his, ee, their) coincide with possessives ( his, ee, their).
I see his often ( whom? - "his" - personal pronoun ).
I see often his sister ( whose sister? - "his" - possessive pronoun ).
There is no such coincidence in German.
I see his often. - Ich sehe ihn oft.
I see often his sister. - Ich sehe seine Schwester oft.
Therefore the words "his", "ee", "their" in various functions correspond different words German language:
him - who? - ihn, whose? - sein
ee - who? - sie, whose? - ihr
them - who? - sie, whose? - ihr
Task 3. Indicate which sentences need to be used when translating: a) the pronoun sie; b) pronoun ihr:
1. My sister Olga and her husband Nikolai live in Moscow. 2. I love her very much. 3. She has been working at school for many years. 4. Their children - Misha and Tanya - are already big. 5. They have their own families. 6. Now I see them often.
Keys to assignments on the topic “Possessive and personal pronouns in German”
1. a) 1; 3; 5. b) mein; 4.sein.
2. 1. ihm; ihr; uns; ihnen. 2.ihn; dich; sie; euch.
People begin to learn German with pronouns; this is necessary in order to achieve rapid immersion both in the language itself and in spoken grammar.
Unfortunately, the variety of pronouns in the German language causes some difficulties for many students. The purpose of this article is to explain and show how some pronouns differ from others.
A pronoun is a part of speech that points to objects but does not name them. Pronouns replace or accompany a noun. The German language has the following pronouns: personal, possessive, demonstrative, interrogative, relative, indefinite, reciprocal, reflexive and impersonal es.
In this article we will take a closer look at personal and possessive pronouns.
Pronouns
German Personal Pronouns
(Personalpronomen) point to a person or object.
Face | Singular | Plural | |
1st | ich - I | wir - we | Speaking face |
2nd | du - you | ihr - you | The person to whom the speech is addressed |
3rd | er, sie, es – he, she, it | sie – they or Sie – you | The person or thing in question |
Note! The polite form Sie/you in German coincides in its grammatical forms with the 3rd person pronoun sie/they plural.
This fact is that many pronouns have the same form but have different meanings, often leads to great confusion. I will give some examples later to illustrate.
Personal pronouns change by case (inflect). In the table below you can see the declination.
Singular |
Plural |
Form of polite address | |||||||
Face | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | |||
Nom | ich | du | er | sie | es | wir | ihr | sie | Sie |
Dat | mir | dir | ihm | ihr | ihm | uns | euch | ihnen | Ihnen |
Akk | mich | dich | ihn | sie | es | uns | euch | sie | Sie |
The table contains other cases of coincidence of personal pronouns. For example, uns may mean us or us. If you have any doubt about how to correctly translate a pronoun, you can always ask a question about the pronoun and get your bearings.
Example: Martin sieht uns jeden Tag. (Martin sees us every day.) Wen sieht Martin jeden Tag? (Who does Martin see every day?) Question wen? corresponds to the accusative case (Akkusativ). The pronoun in this sentence translates us.
German possessive pronouns
(Possessivpronomen) denote that the word being defined belongs to someone or something.
Let's look at possessive pronouns. In Russian the pronoun mine may denote affiliation to different persons. In German, each personal pronoun has its own possessive pronoun.
Personal pronoun |
Possessive pronoun |
Example |
ich - I | mein - mine | Das ist mein Sohn Peter. |
du - you | dein – yours | Dein Leben ist gut. |
er – he | sein - him | Wir sehen sein Auto. |
sie - she | ihr –ee | Ihr Bett ist nicht groß. |
es - it | sein - him | Hier ist das Baby und sein Stoffhund. |
wir - we | unser – ours | Wie gefällt euch unser Bild? |
ihr - you | euer - yours | Wo liegt EUER Haus? |
sie/Sie – they/you | ihr/Ihr – theirs/yours | Ihr Chef ist sehr sympathisch. |
Possessive pronouns are associated as a definition with a noun and agree with it in gender, number and case using case endings
Possessive pronouns are inflected in the singular as the indefinite article, and in the plural as the definite article.
Singular | Plural | |||||||
Masculine | Feminine | Neuter gender | ||||||
Nominative |
mein e Mutter schöne Blumen. (I bring beautiful flowers to my mother) Wem bringe ich schöne Blumen? (To whom do I bring beautiful flowers?) The question corresponds dative case(Dativ). The noun Mutter is singular and feminine. The pronoun is in the singular form, feminine in the dative case. How to distinguish a possessive pronoun from a personal pronoun?
Everything is not as complicated as it seems at first glance. A little practice and the obstinate German pronouns will submit to you. If you don't believe it, just try it! |
Pronouns (die Pronomen) in German, as in any other language, are a part of speech that indicates an object, attribute, quality or person and can replace them without naming them.
Pronouns are personal, interrogative, indefinite and negative. In this lesson we will look at the system of personal pronouns in the German language.
Personal pronouns: rules, pronunciation
As in Russian, in German there are three persons (1st, 2nd and 3rd) and two numbers (singular and plural) of pronouns. It is important to note that the German language also has a system of cases - there are four of them. The table below shows pronouns in the nominative (Nominativ) case.
Please note that the pronoun “ihr” (you) is used when addressing a group of people as “you”. If you want to address someone formally or show politeness, you should use the pronoun “Sie” (You), which, as in Russian, is always written with a capital letter.
Remember! Personal pronouns ich, du, wir, ihr, Sie always denote persons. Personal pronouns er, sie (she), es, sie (they) can denote both persons and objects.
To know which pronoun to replace a particular noun, you must know the gender of the noun. We will look at the topic of gender of nouns in one of the following lessons, but for now let's talk about another important part of speech - the verb.
Verb conjugation: rules, examples
A verb (das Verb) is a part of speech that denotes an action, state or process. Verbs of the German language are conjugated, that is, they change according to persons and numbers, tenses, moods, and have a voice. Conjugated (inflected) forms of a verb are called finite forms of the verb.
- Person and number. Verbs have three persons and two numbers - in each person and number the verb has its own endings. Verbs that are used in all three persons are called personal. However, in German there are verbs that are used only in the 3rd person singular (for example: regnen - to talk about rain). Such verbs are called impersonal.
- Time. Verbs denote actions in three tenses: present, future and past. There are six tense forms for their expression in German.
- Mood shows the speaker's attitude towards the statement. There are indicative (der Indikativ), imperative (der Imperative) and subjunctive (der Konjunktiv) moods.
- Pledge shows the direction of action. Whether the subject performed the action independently, or whether the action was performed on him.
The verb in German also has three main forms: infinitive (Infinitiv), preteritum (Präteritum) and participle II (Partizip II). The verb consists of a stem and an ending “en”: geh-en, schlaf-en, hab-en.
According to the type of conjugation, verbs in German are divided into:
- Strong verbs. Three forms are formed by changing the root vowel: gehen – ging – gegangen.
- Weak verbs. They do not change the vowel at the root when conjugating: machen – machte – gemacht.
- Verbs of mixed type (verbs that, when conjugated, exhibit both the characteristics of weak and the characteristics of strong verbs).
- Irregular and modal.
In this lesson we will look at conjugating weak and strong verbs. All weak verbs are conjugated the same way. This is the largest group of verbs in the German language. Strong verbs are modified according to special rules. This is a small group of verbs - it should be learned by heart (all three main forms). You can find verb tables in a dictionary or any grammar textbook.
So, weak verbs are verbs that:
- have the suffix -(e)te- in Imperfekt;
- have the suffix -(e)t in Partizip II;
- do not change the vowel radically: machen – machte – gemacht.
Let's conjugate the weak verb machen (to do).
Singular | |
---|---|
ich | mach e |
du | mach st |
er | mach t |
sie | |
es |
If the stem of the verb ends in -t, -d, -dm, -tm, -dn, -tn, -chn, -gn, -ffn - then in the 2nd and 3rd person singular and in the 2nd person In the plural, the connecting vowel “e” is added to the stem of the verb.
Let's conjugate the verb baden (to wash).
When conjugating strong verbs, the vowel changes radically in the 2nd and 3rd person singular:
- a changes to ä (except for the verb schaffen - to create);
- au changes to äu;
- e changes to i, ie(except for the verbs gehen - to go, heben - to raise).
Let's conjugate the verb schlafen (to sleep). This is a strong verb, which means the vowel in the root in the 2nd and 3rd person will change.
Important! For verbs whose stem ends in — s, —ss, —ß, — z, —tz in the 2nd person singular the final consonant of the stem merges with the personal ending.
Lesson assignments
To consolidate the material you have covered, try doing a few exercises on your own.
Exercise 1. Conjugate weak verbs:
fragen (to ask), lernen (to teach), glauben (to believe), leben (to live), kosten (to stand).
Exercise 2. Conjugate strong verbs:
geben (give), fahren (ride), laufen (jump), stoßen (push), tragen (carry, carry).
Answers to exercise 1:
Answers to exercise 2.