Finding the Subject Pronoun In German

Before you can form sentences with verbs in German, you will have to know something about subject pronouns. A subject pronoun is, as its name
suggests, the subject of a sentence; the verb must agree with it (grammatically speaking, that is, in person and number - we all know verbs don't have
opinions of their own).

The German subject pronouns in the following table have a person (the first person is "I", the second person is "you" and the third person is "he", "she" or
"it" etc.) just as subject pronouns do in English, and in number (singular or plural).

Subject Pronouns
Case

Singular

English

Plural

English

First

ich

iH
Second

du

Sie

we

veer
you

dew
Formal

wir

ihr

you

eer
you

zee
Third

er, sie, es

he, she, it

eR, zee, es

sie

they

zee

Finding the Subject

To express what people want to do, you need verbs, and verbs, of course, require a subject:

You want to take quiet, relaxing strolls through churches and parks.
The woman wants to spend three days shopping.

When a sentence takes the imperative form (the form of a command) the subject (you) is understood.

Go shopping.

Subjects can either be nouns or pronouns that replace nouns:

The man ate the entire chicken.

He ate the entire chicken.

Tip: Unlike German nouns, which are capitalized no matter where they appear in a sentence, most pronouns take a capital letter only when they begin a
sentence. The only exception to this rule is the pronoun Sie (the polite form for du and ihr ), which is capitalized no matter where it appears in a sentence.