German Pronouns: Personal Pronouns, Pronouns "Man" and "Sie"

A pronoun in German is a shortcut to refer to a noun, a word that stands for or represents a noun or noun phrase.

Using a Pronoun

Rule 1: A pronoun is identified only in the context of the sentence in which it is used, so you must have a prior idea about who "he" or "she", er or sie is. Pronouns agree in the number and gender with the noun they are representing, and change their ending according to the 4 German cases.

Personal Pronouns

Rule 2: Personal pronouns replace one person or more people or things, so we do not need to repeat the noun again once the context is clear about who or what we are talking.

Rule 3: There are 3 perspectives of using pronouns in singular and plural form. A person can speak:

- of oneself:

- directly with someone:

- about someone or something:

Let's recap with a quick table:

Pronoun Man

Rule 4: If we don't relate to a specific person or mean people in general we use the indefinite pronoun man. We use it like a personal pronoun in the third-person singular. "Man" is always the subject of the sentence.

Pronoun Sie

Rule 5: If we don't know a person and want to show some politeness, then we address a person or more people with Sie instead of "du" or "ihr". Sie is always written with a capital "S" and shares the same conjugation as the third person plural.