Personal Pronouns in Nominative

1.Personal pronouns in the nominative

Personal pronouns are short words like ich, du, er, sie, es, wir, ihr, sie, and polite Sie. They stand in for people, things, or groups so you do not repeat a name or noun every time.

At A1 the focus is the nominative — the forms that usually act as the subject. The pronoun shows who or what the subject is; the finite verb must agree with it.

2.What a personal pronoun is

A pronoun can replace a noun or noun phrase. Instead of Anna wohnt in Berlin. Anna arbeitet dort., it is natural to say:

Here sie replaces Anna.

3.Why nominative

Nominative is the basic case form for the subject: Ich lerne., Du kommst., Er arbeitet., Wir wohnen hier. This page covers only these forms. Later come mich, mir, dich, dir, and others.

4.Full table

Polite Sie addresses one person or several. A useful row to memorize: ich – du – er/sie/es – wir – ihr – sie – Sie.

5.ich

ich is the speaker.

With regular verbs the ich form often ends in -e (ich lerne, ich wohne). Frequent irregular verbs have their own forms: ich bin, ich habe, ich kann.

6.du

du is informal address to one person.

Many regular verbs take -st: du lernst, du wohnst. For polite address use Sie.

7.er, sie, es

When talking about another person or thing: er (masculine), sie (feminine), es (neuter).

Many verbs share one form for all three: er / sie / es lernt.

8.Gender for things

er, sie, and es are not only for people. They also replace things: der Tisch → er, die Lampe → sie, das Buch → es.

Noun gender matters for the article and for choosing the pronoun.

9.wir

wir = I + at least one other person.

With many verbs the wir form matches the infinitive: wir lernen, wir wohnen.

10.ihr

ihr is informal address to several people. Compare: du — one, informal; ihr — several, informal.

Many regular verbs end in -t.

11.sie (they) and Sie (you polite)

Lowercase plural sie means “they”:

The verb form often matches the infinitive: sie lernen, sie kommen.

Capital Sie is polite address (one person or several):

The verb form is the same as for plural sie: sie kommen / Sie kommen.

12.sie and Sie look almost the same

At the start of a sentence lowercase sie is also capitalized. Verb form and context distinguish them: Sie arbeitet. vs Sie arbeiten.

13.Pronoun → verb form

So: du lernst, not du lernen; wir lernen, not wir lernt.

14.With sein and haben

15.Not forced into position 1

In a main clause something else can come first; the pronoun remains the subject:

In the second sentence heute is in position 1 and ich follows the finite verb.

16.In questions

The pronoun stays the nominative subject; word order changes:

17.The subject is usually explicit

In normal full German sentences the subject is usually expressed. Not Wohne in Berlin., but Ich wohne in Berlin.. Not Kommst morgen., but Du kommst morgen.. At A1: do not drop a personal-pronoun subject.

18.Replacing names and nouns

For things, choose er / sie / es by grammatical gender.

19.Three ways to address someone

Choice depends on situation and relationship: du kommst / ihr kommt / Sie kommen.

20.Typical mistakes

Pronoun and verb must agree; ihr and Sie are different situations; for der Tisch use er; polite Sie is capitalized; do not drop the subject.