Plural personal pronouns

Have a look at the plural personal pronouns in different cases:

Nom.	Acc.	Dat.
wir - we	uns - us	uns - us
ihr - you (plural, informal)	euch - you	euch - you
Sie - you (singular or plural, formal)	Sie - you	Ihnen - you
sie - they	sie - them	ihnen - them

Nom.	Sie - you (singular or plural, formal)
Acc.	Sie - you
Dat.	Ihnen - you

Hilfsvokabeln– Helpful vocabulary

Here’s how to use plural personal pronouns.

German	English	Use
Er wartet auf uns.	He is waiting for us.	auf is a preposition which needs the accusative, so you have to say uns for ‘us’.
Kann ich Ihnen helfen?	Can I help you?	helfen takes the dative case. Ihnen is the dative formal word for ‘you’. This is the sort of question that would be asked in a shop, for example.
Er holt euch um fünf Uhr ab.	He’ll pick you up at five o’clock.	euch is the object of the verb abholen, so must be accusative.
Wir haben ihnen das neue Bild gezeigt.	We showed them the new picture.	We did not show ‘them’ to anyone, we showed the picture ‘to them’. ihnen means ‘to them’ and is in the dative.

German	Er wartet auf uns.
English	He is waiting for us.
Use	auf is a preposition which needs the accusative, so you have to say uns for ‘us’.

German	Kann ich Ihnen helfen?
English	Can I help you?
Use	helfen takes the dative case. Ihnen is the dative formal word for ‘you’. This is the sort of question that would be asked in a shop, for example.

German	Er holt euch um fünf Uhr ab.
English	He’ll pick you up at five o’clock.
Use	euch is the object of the verb abholen, so must be accusative.

German	Wir haben ihnen das neue Bild gezeigt.
English	We showed them the new picture.
Use	We did not show ‘them’ to anyone, we showed the picture ‘to them’. ihnen means ‘to them’ and is in the dative.

Question

Which pronoun should you use in these sentences? Replace the highlighted noun with a pronoun.

German	English	Use
Ich habe sie zum Essen eingeladen.	I have invited them to dinner.	Hanna and Clara are the object of the verb einladen, so the pronoun must be in the accusative.
Der Polizist folgt ihnen.	The policeman is following them.	You may have thought that ‘them’ was the object and so had to go in the accusative. However, folgen is one of the verbs which take the dative, so you have to use the dative form ihnen. Although Verbrecher is the same in both singular and plural, we can tell that this is a plural word, as all plural nouns must end in -n when they are in the dative case.
Willst du mit uns ins Kino gehen?	Do you want to go to the cinema with us?	The preposition mit requires the dative, which is mit uns.
Wir besuchen sie am Wochenende.	We are visiting them at the weekend.	Petra and Timo are the object of the verb besuchen. We are visiting them, so they must be accusative.

German	Ich habe sie zum Essen eingeladen.
English	I have invited them to dinner.
Use	Hanna and Clara are the object of the verb einladen, so the pronoun must be in the accusative.

German	Der Polizist folgt ihnen.
English	The policeman is following them.
Use	You may have thought that ‘them’ was the object and so had to go in the accusative. However, folgen is one of the verbs which take the dative, so you have to use the dative form ihnen. Although Verbrecher is the same in both singular and plural, we can tell that this is a plural word, as all plural nouns must end in -n when they are in the dative case.

German	Willst du mit uns ins Kino gehen?
English	Do you want to go to the cinema with us?
Use	The preposition mit requires the dative, which is mit uns.

German	Wir besuchen sie am Wochenende.
English	We are visiting them at the weekend.
Use	Petra and Timo are the object of the verb besuchen. We are visiting them, so they must be accusative.

Fill in the gap with the correct pronoun.

German	English	Use
Frau Stein, hier sind Blumen für Sie.	Mrs Stein, here are some flowers for you.	This is a formal situation, so Sie must be used with the accusative preposition für.
Mutti, Vati - ich habe etwas für euch.	Mum, Dad - I have something for you.	‘You’ would be informal when speaking to your parents, so after für you would use the informal accusative word for ‘you’ - euch.
Wo sind Oma und Opa? Hast du von ihnen gehört?	Where are granny and grandad? Have you heard from them?	von needs the dative case, which is ihnen.

German	Frau Stein, hier sind Blumen für Sie.
English	Mrs Stein, here are some flowers for you.
Use	This is a formal situation, so Sie must be used with the accusative preposition für.

German	Mutti, Vati - ich habe etwas für euch.
English	Mum, Dad - I have something for you.
Use	‘You’ would be informal when speaking to your parents, so after für you would use the informal accusative word for ‘you’ - euch.

German	Wo sind Oma und Opa? Hast du von ihnen gehört?
English	Where are granny and grandad? Have you heard from them?
Use	von needs the dative case, which is ihnen.