German Personal Pronouns

German personal pronouns are easy to remember and they are almost identical to those in English.

Personal Pronouns
Germ
an

English

Example

Nominative
Singular
ich

Ich komme aus Berlin. (I come from Berlin)

du

you (informal)

Wie alt bist du? (How old are you?)

er

he

Wer ist er? (Who is he?)

sie

she

Wo ist sie? (Where is she?)

es

it

Was ist es? (What it is?)

Sie

you (formal)

Woher kommen Sie? (Where are you from?)

Formal "Sie" is same as infinitive and plural
conjugation.

Germ
an

English

Example

Nominative
Plural
Wir

we

Wir gehen ins kino. (We are going to conema)

ihr

you guys
(informal)

Wohnt ihr da? (Do you guys live here?)

sie

they

Woher kommen sie? (Where are they from?)

Plural conjugation is same as infinitive and formal
"Sie".

Sie

you (plural)

Woher kommen Sie? (Where are you:all come

from?)
Same as infinitive and formal "Sie".

Now we will try to use just learned German personal pronouns with some basic verbs.
The infinitive form of verbs looks like this: root+en. For example lernen, wohnen, kommen:

First-person singular is ich. Generally the form of verb is root+e. Ich lerne, ich wohne, ich komme.
Second-person singular du informal. root+st. Du lernst, du wohnst, du kommst.
Second-person singular+plural Sie formal. Same as infinitive. Sie lernen, wohnen, kommen.
Third-person singular (he, she, it) er, sie, es. root+t. Er/sie/es lernt, wohnt, kommt.
First-person plural (we) wir. Same as infinitive. Wir lernen, wohnen, kommen.
Second-person plural-informal (you guys) ihr. first-person sing.+t. Irh lernt, wohnt, kommt.
Second-person plural (you) sie. Same as infinitive. Wir lernen, wohnen, kommen.

This is a very general rule of using German personal pronouns with verbs. There are exceptions but first you need to
get used to basics.
Happy learning!

Quick note about you in German. Unlike English, German has formal you Sie and informal (familiar) du. You have to remember it
and try not to forget about it. Well speak about it in the next lessons but here is a simple rule: Use du if you know person good or he
asked you to call him so. Otherwise, use Sie.

Well show German personal pronouns in the table below and they will be in the nominative case. There are other cases as well but we
need to know the basics first.