German Pronouns

German pronouns describe a set of German words with specific functions, such as being the subject of a clause, or relating the main clause to a subordinate one. Germanic pronouns are divided in to six groups;

• Personal pronouns, which adverts an entity, such as the speaker or third parties;
• Possessive pronouns, which describe ownership of objects, institutions, etc.;
• Interrogative pronouns, which are used in questions, such as who?;
• Reflexive pronouns, in which the subject is also one of the objects;
• Relative pronouns, which connect clauses;
• Indefinite pronouns, which denote entities of quantities.

The German personal pronouns must always have the same gender, same number, and same case as their antecedents. These rules apply for other pronouns, also.

In German, a pronoun may have a certain position in the sentence under special circumstances. First and second person pronouns usually do not, and they can be used anywhere in the sentence—except in certain poetical or informal contexts.

"Das im Schrank" (the thing in the cupboard)

"Das auf dem Tisch" (the thing on the table)

There are also genitive direct objects. Since the personal pronoun does not have a genitive form, the genitive of the possessive pronoun is applied in those cases. These forms are bracketed. The genitive object, other than accusative or dative objects, is somewhat outdating:

OLD: "Ich erinnere mich ihrer" (MODERN: "Ich erinnere mich an sie.") (I remember her.)

OLD: "Ich erinnere mich seiner" (MODERN: "Ich erinnere mich an ihn.")

OLD: "Ich entsinne mich ihrer" (MODERN: "Ich erinnere mich an sie.")

In Modern German, "erinnern" rather takes the prepositional phrase with the preposition an. However, some verbs cannot be constructed otherwise, and thus genitive objects remain common language in some degree. This is true for "entsinnen" (which is archaic in itself), but also for sentences such as:

OLD AND MODERN: "Laßt uns der Opfer des Marxismus, Faschismus, und Nationalsozialismus gedenken." (Let us commemorate the victims of Marxism, Fascism, and National Socialism.)

OLD AND MODERN: "Ich klage Herrn Max Mustermann des Mordes an." (I accuse Mr. Thomas Atkins of murder.)

The two noun and pronoun emphasizers "selber" and "selbst" have slightly different meanings than if used with nominal phrases. They normally emphasize the pronoun, but if they are applied to a reflexive pronoun (in the objective case), they emphasize its reflexive meaning.