The Four German Cases: Summary Part 2

German Language

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German Language

The Four German Cases

Part 2: Summary - Pronouns

As we stated in the first part of this summary, English also has cases, but they are only apparent with pronouns, not with nouns, as in German. This section of our summary is devoted to the German pronouns, which also take on different forms (i.e., are "declined") in the various cases. Just as nominative "I" changes to objective "me" in English, nominative ich changes to accusative mich in German. Oberve the following German-English examples in which the pronouns are red:

Er (der Hund) beißt den Mann.
He (the dog) bites the man.
Ihn (den Mann) hat der Hund gebissen.
The dog bit him (the man).
Wen hat er gebissen?
Whom did he bite?
Wer ist das?
Who is that?
Du hast mich doch gesehen?
You did see me (didn't you)?
Die hat keine Ahnung.
She/That one has no idea.

Most of the German personal pronouns have different forms in each of the four cases, but it can be helpful to observe that some (similar to English "you") do not always change. An example is "she"/sie (also "they"/sie and "you"/Sie). This pronoun, regardless of its meaning, remains the same in the nominative and accusative cases. In the dative it changes to ihnen/Ihnen, while the possessive form is ihr/Ihr. Two German pronouns use the same form in both the accusative and the dative (uns, euch). The third-person pronouns (he, she, it) follow the rule that only the masculine gender shows any change in the accusative case. Neither neuter es nor feminine sie changes. But in the dative case, all of the pronouns take on uniquely dative forms.

The following chart shows the personal pronouns in all four cases. Changes from the nominative (subject) case are indicated in red.

For more about each case, see the links below.

Third-Person Pronouns (er, sie, es)
Fall Case	Männlich masc.	Weiblich fem.	Sächlich neut.	Mehrzahl plural
Nom	er he	sie she	es it	sie they
Akk	ihn him	sie her	es it	sie them
Dat	ihm (to) him	ihr (to) her	ihm (to) it	ihnen (to) them
Gen* (Poss.)	sein his	ihr her	sein its	ihre their
*Note: The possessive third-person pronoun forms shown here do not indicate the various additional case endings (genitive, dative, etc.) they might have in a typical sentence in various situations (i.e., seiner, ihres, etc.).
Demonstrative Pronouns (der, die, denen)
Fall Case	Männlich masc.	Weiblich fem.	Sächlich neut.	Mehrzahl plural
Nom	der that one	die that one	das that one	die these
Akk	den that one	die that one	das that one	die those
Dat	dem (to) that	der (to) that	dem (to) that	denen (to) them
Gen	dessen of that	deren of that	dessen of that	deren of them
Note: When the definite articles are used as demonstrative pronouns, only the dative plural and genitive forms are different from the normal definite articles.
Other Pronouns
Fall Case	1. Person sing.	1. Person plur.	2. Person sing.	2. Person plur.
Nom	ich I	wir we	du you	ihr you
Akk	mich me	uns us	dich you	euch you
Dat	mir (to) me	uns (to) us	dir (to) you	euch (to) you
Gen* (Poss.)	mein my	unser our	dein your	euer your
Interrogative "who" • Formal "you"
Fall Case	Wer? who?		2. Person formal (sing. & plur.)
Nom	wer		Sie
Akk	wen whom		Sie you
Dat	wem (to) whom		Ihnen (to) you
Gen* (Poss.)	wessen whose		Ihr your
Note: Sie is the same in the singular and plural. It is always capitalized in all of its forms. Wer (who) has no plural form in German or English.
Was? The interrogative was (what) is the same in the nominative and accusative cases. It has no dative or genitive forms and is related to das and es. Like wer, was has no plural form in German or English.