Lesson 3 - Subject Pronouns
Before discussing verb forms in the German language, you'll have to know a bit about 'subjects'.
This lesson only discusses subject pronouns; pronouns as a whole will be discussed in detail in later lessons. The subject of a sentence is usually a noun that names a person or thing that performs the action. A pronoun is a word that takes the place of that noun.
First-person & Second-person Pronouns
In German, there are two ways of addressing people, either formal or informal.
The informal is usually used when addressing friends & children,
while the formal method is used with people whom you may not know well or who are older than you.
| Pronoun | Definition | Pronoun | Definition |
|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | ||
| ich | I | wir | we |
| du | you - informal | ihr | you - informal |
| Sie | you - formal | Sie | you - formal |
Third-person Pronouns
In German, the subject pronoun must follow the gender of the noun it replaces. Since some German masculine nouns are inanimate objects, the German masculine pronoun can mean 'it' when referring to something inanimate, or it can mean 'he' when referring to something male. The same thing occurs with female and neuter pronouns.
| Noun | Defintion | Pronoun | Defintion |
|---|---|---|---|
| Masculine | |||
| der Arzt | doctor | er | he |
| der Tisch | table | er | it |
| Feminine | |||
| die Mutter | mother | sie | she |
| die Wand | wall | sie | it |
| Neuter | |||
| das Kind | child | es | he/she |
| das Mädchen | girl | es | she |
| das Papier | paper | es | it |
| Plural | |||
| die Kinder | children | sie | they |
| die Blumen | flowers | sie | they |
| die Stühle | chairs | sie | they |
The German 'sie/Sie' might be very confusing for the beginner German learners. Don't worry though, you should be able to easily differentiate between their intended meanings in a sentence when you learn verb conjugation.
Now that you know the German subject pronouns, you're ready to learn about verbs.