UNIT FIVE
Pronouns
What are pronouns?
Pronouns are words that ‘stand in’ for nouns and refer to persons, things
or ideas. The most important ones are the personal pronouns(ich,du,
er/sie/esetc.):Georg ist noch klein, aber erkann schon lesen.
Georg is only small but he can already read.Mir gefällt das Auto, aber esist zu teuer.
I like the car, but it is too expensive.Personal and other pronouns
Apart from personal pronounsthere are several other words that can
function as pronouns. In this unit we will deal with:- demonstrativessuch as dieser‘this’ etc.;
- possessivessuch as meine‘my’ etc.; and
- indefinitessuch as man‘one’/‘you’.
Personal pronouns
Different forms of personal pronouns
Personal pronouns can replace and refer to any kind of noun or noun
phrase. They need to agree with the grammatical role of these nouns. This
is often indicated by different forms of the pronoun. Here is an overview
of personal pronouns in the nominative, accusative and dative case: