A-B: Personal Pronouns 

Personal pronouns: what they are

Personal pronouns are words that can replace people: instead of ‘my uncle’, you can say ‘he’ instead of ‘my friend and me’ you say ‘we’ and instead of ‘my mom’ you can say ‘she’ and so on.

In German, these pronouns are for the most part the same as in English, but there are two additional ones:  the informal ‘you’ in singular (du) and plural (ihr = something like ‘you all’). We used to have them in Old English too (thou), but we liked the formal one so much that we stopped using the informal thou altogether and it disappeared from the language.

What the heck is first person, second person, third person?

When we talk about ourselves, we call it the first person (e.g. now you see why first-person shooters are called that?) When we talk to someone directly, we call it the ‘second person’, and when we talk about others, we call it ‘third person’.  Each person has a singular and a plural thus giving us six options:

*Technically, Sie belongs together with du and ihr because it means ‘you’, but since it sounds the same as sie (they) and gets the same ending, sie and Sie are usually put together in such charts.

2-3. Aufgabe 1. Indicate the correct German pronoun for the given contexts. 

1. You are talking about your friend Brian with your sister.   _____             
2. You are addressing your professor. _____                  
3. You are talking to a group of classmates. _____                  
4. You and your best friend are talking about yourselves.   _____                 
5. You are speaking with two of your co-workers.   _____                 
6. You are telling a story about yourself. _____                  
7. You are chatting with your mom about your sister. _____                  
8. You are asking your friend about themselves.    _____                 
9. You are referring to a general concept or action.   _____                 
10. You are gossiping about your siblings to your friends.   _____                 

2-3. Aufgabe 2. Fill in the blanks with the appropriate personal pronouns. Hint: looking at the verb forms can also help you determine which pronoun to use! Remember that when referring to objects, you must use the pronoun that corresponds to their gender.

1. Regina geht in den Supermarkt.  _______   kauft Obst und Gemüse.
2. Mein Name ist Bob und ______ studiere an McMaster Universität.
3. Der Stuhl ist alt, aber ______  ist noch schön.
4. Meine Freundin und ich, ______ gehen ins Kino.
5. Frau Tiedemann, haben ______ Zeit?
6. Das Buch? ______ ist super langweilig!
7. Hallo, Marie, hast ______ ein Handy?  Was ist deine Nummer?
8. Mein Bruder ist noch nicht hier. ______  wird später kommen.
9. Wie spät ist ______?
10. Herr Köhler und Herr Patel, was machen ______ ?
11. Paul und Anika, habt  ______ Hunger?
12. Meine Brüder wohnen in Deutschland.   ______  lernen Deutsch.
13. Die Tasse auf dem Tisch? ______  ist meine Lieblingstasse!

Answer Key

Personal Pronouns Aufgabe 1.

1. 1. er
   2. Sie
   3. ihr
   4. wir
   5. Sie
   6. ich
   7. sie
   8. du
   9. es
   10. sie

2-3: Aufgabe 2.

1. 1. Sie
   2. ich
   3. er
   4. wir
   5. Sie
   6. Es
   7. du
   8. Er
   9. es
   10. Sie
   11. ihr
   12. Sie
   13. Sie