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Grammar notes
German personal pronouns change form depending on their case. The case is determined by the verb: some verbs take a direct object (accusative), others take an indirect/dative object (dative).
| Person | Nominativ | Dativ | Akkusativ |
|---|---|---|---|
| I | ich | mir | mich |
| you (sg.) | du | dir | dich |
| he | er | ihm | ihn |
| she | sie | ihr | sie |
| it | es | ihm | es |
| we | wir | uns | uns |
| you (pl.) | ihr | euch | euch |
| they | sie | ihnen | sie |
| you (formal) | Sie | Ihnen | Sie |
A few things to notice:
- wir and ihr use the exact same form for dative and accusative (uns, euch) — no distinction to worry about there.
- es doesn't stay es in the dative — it becomes ihm, the same as the masculine form.
- sie (she) and sie (they) look identical in the nominative and accusative, but differ in the dative: ihr (her) vs. ihnen (them).
- The formal Sie/Ihnen is always capitalized, in any position in the sentence.
Most verbs (sehen, kennen, lieben, fragen, besuchen, verstehen) take the accusative. A smaller group of common verbs takes the dative instead and simply has to be memorized: helfen, danken, glauben, gefallen, folgen, gehören, passen, gratulieren.
Personal Pronouns: Dative and Accusative
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Ich danke , Frau Schmidt.