1. Personal Pronouns (Personalpronomen)

Personal pronouns represent people or things in a conversation.

• 1st Person: The speaker (ich, wir).
• 2nd Person: The listener (du, ihr).
• 3rd Person: People or things being talked about (er, sie, es).
• Formal Form: Use Sie (always capitalized) to address one or more people formally.

Quick Reference Table

Note: The Genitive forms (meiner, deiner, etc.) are rarely used today except in specific adverbs like meinetwegen.

2. The Special Pronoun “Es”

The word es is very versatile. It can:

• Replace a neutral noun (e.g., Das Kind $\rightarrow$ Es).
• Act as a “dummy subject” for weather or time: Es regnet (It is raining), Es ist sieben Uhr (It is seven o’clock).
• Describe feelings: Wie geht es Ihnen? (How are you?).

3. Possessive Pronouns (Possessivpronomen)

These show ownership. There is a difference between a Possessive Article (used with a noun) and a Possessive Pronoun (used alone).

• Article: “Das ist mein Hund” (That is my dog).
• Pronoun: “Das ist meiner” (That is mine).

The endings of these words change based on the gender and case of the object owned.

4. Demonstrative Pronouns

These are used to highlight or point out something specific.

• der / das / die: Most common in spoken German.
• dieser: Means “this one”.
• jener: Means “that one”.

5. Relative Pronouns (Relativpronomen)

Relative pronouns connect a main clause to a relative clause to give more information about a noun.

• Example: Die Kinder, die hier spielen… (The children who are playing here…).
• The gender and number come from the noun, but the case comes from the verb in the relative clause.

6. Reflexive Pronouns (Reflexivpronomen)

Used with reflexive verbs where the action refers back to the subject.

• mich / mir (myself)
• dich / dir (yourself)
• sich (himself/herself/itself/themselves)

7. Indefinite & Interrogative Pronouns

• Indefinite: Used for non-specific people or things (e.g., man, jemand, etwas, niemand).
• Interrogative (Question Words): Use wer for people and was for things.
• • Wer hat das gesagt? (Who said that?)
  • Was ist passiert? (What happened?)

Pro Tip: Pronominal Adverbs

When a preposition is used with a thing (instead of a person), German uses da- + preposition.

• Instead of “Wait for it,” Germans say: Ich warte darauf.