Er gibt ihreinen Schokoriegel.
He gives her a bar of chocolate.
Willst du mit miressen gehen?
Do you want to go out to eat with me?
Kann ich Ihnenhelfen?
Can I help you?
Mirgeht es gut.
I am fine.
Thegenitiveformsmeiner‘mine’,deiner‘yours’(inf.),Ihrer‘yours’(form.),
seinerhis,ihrer‘hers’,seiner‘his’, unser ‘ours’,euer‘yours’(inf.), Ihrer
‘yours’(form.),ihrer‘theirs’ are rarely used in contemporary German.
They are usually replaced with an alternative structure:
Wir erinnern uns seiner.(gen.)→ Wir erinnern uns an ihn.
We remember him. We remember him.
Special use of the pronoun es
Apart from referring to neuter nouns in the nominative and accusative,
escan also refer to a phrase or a whole sentence:
Sitzen Sie gern in der Sonne? → Ja, ich genieße esrichtig.
Do you like sitting in the sun? Yes, I thoroughly enjoy it.
Position of personal pronouns
In the case of two pronouns functioning as objects in a sentence, the accus-
ative pronoun precedes the dative pronoun:
Wann stellt du mich (acc.)ihr(dat.)vor?
When will you introduce me to her?
If one of the objects is not a pronoun but a noun the pronoun comes
before the noun:
Wann stellst du michdeiner Mutter vor?
When will you introduce me to your mother?
Er schenkt ihreinen Ring.
He gives her a ring.
36 Unit 5: Pronouns
111
2 3 4 5 6 7
8111
9
1011
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
2011
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
3011
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
4011
1
2
3
41111
