Pronouns in German

German pronouns are German words that function as pronouns. As with pronouns in other languages, they are frequently employed as the subject or object of a clause, acting as substitutes for nouns or noun phrases, but are also used in relative clauses to relate the main clause to a subordinate one.

Classification and usage

Germanic pronouns are divided into several groups;

Personal pronouns, which apply to an entity, such as the speaker or third parties;

Possessive pronouns, which describe ownership of objects, institutions, etc.;

Demonstrative pronouns;

Determinative pronouns;

Reflexive pronouns, in which the subject is also one of the objects;

Relative pronouns, which connect clauses;

Interrogative pronouns, which are used in questions, such as who?;

Indefinite pronouns, which denote entities of quantities.

With few exceptions, German pronouns must always have the same gender, same number, and same case as their antecedents.

In German, a pronoun may have a certain position in the sentence under special circumstances. First and second person pronouns usually do not, and they can be used anywhere in the sentence—except in certain poetical or informal contexts.

Das im Schrank (the thing in the cupboard)

Das auf dem Tisch (the thing on the table)

There are also genitive direct objects. But the genitive object, other than accusative or dative objects, is somewhat outdated:

OLD: Ich erinnere mich ihrer (MODERN: Ich erinnere mich an sie.) (I remember her.)

OLD: Ich erinnere mich seiner (MODERN: Ich erinnere mich an ihn.)

OLD: Ich entsinne mich ihrer (MODERN: Ich erinnere mich an sie.)

In Modern German, erinnern rather takes the prepositional phrase with the preposition an. However, some verbs cannot be constructed otherwise, and thus genitive objects remain common language to some degree. This is true for entsinnen (which is archaic in itself), but also for sentences such as:

OLD AND MODERN: Lasst uns der Opfer gedenken.