Accusative and dative personal pronouns

In brief

German object pronouns change form according to their role. Use the accusative for the person or thing directly affected by an action, and the dative for a recipient or with certain verbs such as helfen (to help). English often uses the same pronoun in both roles, but German distinguishes ihn from ihm, for example.

Form

Accusative: mich, dich, ihn, sie, es, uns, euch, sie. Dative: mir, dir, ihm, ihr, ihm, uns, euch, ihnen. Each pair refers to the same person or thing in the same order: I, you (singular), he, she, it, we, you (plural), they.

Usage

• Use an accusative pronoun with verbs such as sehen: Ich sehe ihn.
• Use a dative pronoun for the recipient with geben: Ich gebe ihr den Schlüssel.
• Learn the case required by a verb: helfen takes the dative, even when English says ‘help him’.

Examples

• Ich sehe ihn jeden Tag. — I see him every day.
• Kannst du mir helfen? — Can you help me?
• Ich gebe ihr den Schlüssel. — I’m giving her the key.
• Sie besucht uns morgen. — She’s visiting us tomorrow.

Common mistake

❌ Ich helfe ihn.

✅ Ich helfe ihm.

Helfen requires the dative in German. Use ihm for ‘him’ here, even though English uses the same form in ‘I see him’ and ‘I help him’.

Remember

Ask what role the pronoun has, then check whether the verb requires a particular case.