German personal and reflexive pronouns¶

Q: When do I use mich and when mir?

mich is Akkusativ, mir is Dativ. The case depends on the role of the pronoun in the sentence. After a preposition, the case depends on the preposition. Use Akkusativ when the pronoun stands for the person or thing the action goes to (question wen? or was?): Er sieht mich. Use it also after the prepositions that take Akkusativ, such as für: Das ist für mich. Use Dativ when the pronoun is the person who gets, hears or reads something (question wem?): Gib mir das Buch. The thing can stay unnamed: Ich schreibe dir morgen. Use Dativ also after the verbs helfen, danken, gefallen and gehören, and after the prepositions that take Dativ, such as mit: Komm mit mir. An important exception is the verb fragen. With it, the person is in Akkusativ: Ich frage dich etwas. English has one form, me, for both cases. So English can't help you choose.

Q: Why does der Tisch become ihn, not es?

The pronoun agrees with the grammatical gender of the noun. This rule applies to things too. der Tisch is Maskulinum, so you need ihn. es is correct only for nouns in Neutrum, such as das Buch. In English, a thing is always "it", so es can feel natural. But choose the pronoun by the gender of the German noun.

Q: When do I need sich instead of a regular pronoun?

You need sich when the action goes back to the person who does it: Er wäscht sich (he washes himself). If he washes someone else, use a regular pronoun: Er wäscht ihn. This choice exists only for the 3rd person (er, sie, es, plural sie) and for the formal Sie. For ich, du, wir and ihr, the reflexive and the regular pronoun are the same word, so you don't have to choose.

Personal pronouns (Personalpronomen) are ich, du, er and others. They decline by case, like nouns and articles. The reflexive pronoun (Reflexivpronomen) sich adds one more choice. You need it when the action goes back to the person who does it.

Personal pronoun chart¶

Nominativ	Akkusativ	Dativ	English
ich	mich	mir	I
du	dich	dir	you (informal, singular)
er	ihn	ihm	he
sie	sie	ihr	she
es	es	ihm	it
wir	uns	uns	we
ihr	euch	euch	you (informal, plural)
sie	sie	ihnen	they
Sie	Sie	Ihnen	you (formal)

Modern German almost never uses the Genitiv of personal pronouns. The old forms, such as meiner and deiner, are rare and sound bookish. So the table shows only three cases.

Mich or mir: Akkusativ or Dativ¶

mich is Akkusativ, mir is Dativ. dich and dir, ihn and ihm differ in the same way. The case depends on the role of the pronoun in the sentence. After a preposition, the case depends on the preposition.

Use Akkusativ in these situations:

The pronoun stands for the person or thing the action goes to (question wen? or was?, whom? what?): Er sieht mich. (He sees me.)
The pronoun comes after one of the prepositions that take Akkusativ, such as für, ohne or durch: Das ist für mich. (This is for me.)

Use Dativ in these situations:

The pronoun is the person who gets, hears, reads or sees something (question wem?, to whom?): Gib mir das Buch. (Give me the book.) The thing can stay unnamed: Ich schreibe dir morgen. (I'll write to you tomorrow.)
The verb always takes the Dativ, such as helfen, danken, gefallen and gehören: Hilf mir! (Help me!)
The pronoun comes after one of the prepositions that take Dativ, such as mit, bei or von: Komm mit mir. (Come with me.)

When a sentence has both a person and a thing, the person is usually in Dativ and the thing in Akkusativ: Er zeigt mir den Weg. (He shows me the way.) An important exception is the verb fragen. With it, the person is in Akkusativ: Ich frage dich etwas. (I'll ask you something.)

For some prepositions, the case depends on the meaning. These are the Wechselpräpositionen (two-way prepositions): an, auf, in, neben and others. When the phrase answers wohin? (where to?), they take Akkusativ: Er setzt sich neben mich. (He sits down next to me.) When it answers wo? (at which place?), they take Dativ: Er sitzt neben mir. (He is sitting next to me.) In English, both sentences say "next to me", but the German cases differ. Movement alone doesn't decide the case. Er läuft im Park. (He runs in the park.) has movement but no direction, so it takes Dativ.

English has one form, "me", for both cases. So English can't help you choose. Learn the case together with the verb or the preposition. The list of verbs with Dativ is in Verbs with Dativ.

Grammatical gender, not "animacy"¶

The pronoun agrees with the grammatical gender of the noun. This rule applies to things too: Der Tisch ist alt, aber ich mag ihn. (The table is old, but I like it.) der Tisch is Maskulinum, so you need ihn.

In English, a thing is always "it". So English speakers often use es for every thing. But es is correct only for nouns in Neutrum, such as das Buch. Choose the pronoun by the gender of the German noun.

How reflexive pronouns decline across cases¶

You need a reflexive pronoun when the action goes back to the person who does it: Er wäscht sich. (He washes himself.) If he washes someone else, use a regular pronoun: Er wäscht ihn. ich, du, wir and ihr have no separate reflexive form. They use the regular pronoun: mich, dir and others. The form sich exists only for the 3rd person (er, sie, es, plural sie) and for the formal Sie.

Nominativ	Akkusativ (reflexive)	Dativ (reflexive)
ich	mich	mir
du	dich	dir
er / sie / es	sich	sich
wir	uns	uns
ihr	euch	euch
sie (they) / Sie	sich	sich

For ich and du, the reflexive pronoun changes with the case: mich or mir, dich or dir. The case depends on whether the sentence has another object. If there is no other object, use Akkusativ: Ich wasche mich. If another word already takes the Akkusativ, use Dativ: Ich kaufe mir ein Buch. Here ein Buch takes the Akkusativ. For the other persons, the form is the same in both cases, so you don't have to choose.

Exercises¶

You can find more exercises on this topic in the Telegram bot @ImmerWiederholenBot. The bot saves your progress and reminds you when it's time to review.