Personal
pronouns
stand for
the person(s) speaking,
e.g.
stand for the person(s) addressed, e.g.
-
Du
lernst Deutsch. (You
are
learning German.) [You are talking to one person the informal way.]
-
Ihr
lernt
Deutsch. (You
are learning German.) [You are
talking to more than one person the informal way.]
-
Lernen
Sie
Deutsch, Frau Smith? (Are
you
learning German, Ms Smith?) [You are talking to
one person the formal way.]
-
Lernen
Sie
Deutsch, Herr und Frau Smith? (Are
you
learning German, Mr and Ms Smith?) [You are
talking to more than one person the formal way.]
-
Mein Freund besucht
euch morgen. (My friend is
going to visit
you tomorrow.)
or
stand in place of nouns or noun phrases, e.g.
Mein Freund
wohnt in München. (My friend lives in Munich.) ->
Er
wohnt in München. (He
lives in Munich.)
Ich habe Ralf und seine Freunde
nicht gesehen. (I haven’t seen Ralf and his friends.) -> Ich habe
sie
nicht gesehen. (I haven't seen
them.)
Anna besucht ihren Bruder. (Anna is visiting
her brother.) -> Anna besucht
ihn.
(Anna is visiting
him.)
Der Kühlschrank
ist energieeffizient. (The fridge is energy efficient.) ->
Er
ist energieeffizient. (It
is energy efficient.)
Die Jacke
kostet viel Geld. (The jacket costs a lot of money.) ->
Sie
kostet viel Geld. (It
costs a lot of money.)
Kaufst du die
Bücher? (Are you going to buy the books?) -> Kaufst du
sie?
(Are you going to buy
them?)
Es tut meinem
Freund leid. (My friend is sorry.) -> Es tut
ihm leid. (He
is sorry.)
Er gibt den kleinen
Kindern einen Ball. (He gives a ball to the small children.) -> Er
gibt
ihnen einen Ball. (He gives
them a ball.)
Note I: "er" and "sie" usually refer to persons.
-
Mein Bruder lernt Deutsch. (My brother
is learning German.) ->
Er lernt Deutsch. (He is
learning German.)
-
Meine kleine Schwester
spielte gerne Schach. (My little
sister likes playing chess.) ->
Sie spielt gerne
Schach. (She likes playing chess.)
-
Wann triffst du
deinen
Chef? (When are you
going to meet your boss?) -> Wann triffst du
ihn? (When are you
going to meet
him?)
However, they can also substitute
masculine or feminine nouns or noun phrases that don't refer to people, e.g.
-
Schokolade (f):
Schokolade
hat viele Kalorien. (Chocolate has a lot of
calories.) -> Sie hat viele Kalorien. (It has a lot
of calories.)
-
Rucksack (m):
Der alte Rucksack ist schwer. (The
old rucksack is
heavy.) -> Er ist schwer. (It
is heavy.)
-
Laptop (m) Hast du
den Laptop gekauft? (Did
you buy the laptop?) -> Hast du
ihn gekauft? (Did you
buy
it?)
Note II: The formal "you" ("Sie", no matter whether
you talk to one person or to more than one person) is used when
addressing
-
strangers or
-
people with whom you are not
on a first-name basis or
-
people whom you would like to
show some respect or
-
people to whom you wish to
maintain a certain distance.
Note III: After
prepositions, personal pronouns are subject to the same case rules as
nouns. However, if a third-person pronoun refers to inanimate objects,
German generally requires a da-contruction (=
da- +
preposition) instead of
preposition plus personal pronoun, e.g.
für + Akkusativ:
Meine Kollegen haben für Herrn
Sauer Geld gesammelt. (My colleagues collected money for Mr Sauer.) ->
Meine Kollegen haben für ihn
Geld gesammelt. (My colleagues collected money for
him.)
but: Meine Kollegen haben für die
Weihnachtsfeier Geld gesammelt. (My colleagues collected money for the
Christmas party.) -> Meine Kollegen haben
dafür
Geld gesammelt. (My colleagues collected money for
it.)