Guten Tag, liebe Leser! Recently, as part of my back to basics post, I linked to a post from the archives that deals with German possessive pronouns – that is, how to say things like ‘her book’ , ‘his hat’, ‘our cat’, and so on. Now I’d like to go over German indefinite pronouns.

 

What are German indefinite pronouns?

These are pronouns that do not indicate the gender or number of things/people discussed. To put it simply, they are those vague words like ‘somebody’, ‘everybody’, ‘a few’, and ‘some’. Why are these important to learn? Because sometimes we aren’t able to be – or don’t want to be – too specific!
(Note some of the words’ endings here might change in real speech, according to the gender of the subject. But the main thing at this stage is that you get a feel for how these words look and sound. 🙂 )

 

So how do we say these indefinite pronouns in German?

Everybody – Alle/Jeder

All of us – Allesamt

Somebody – Jemand/Irgendwer

Nobody – Niemand/Keiner

Anybody – Jedermann/Irgendjemand

Something – (Irgend)Etwas

Somewhere – Irgendwo

Nowhere – Nirgends/Nirgendwo

**

Both – Beide

Some/a few – Einige

A lot/many – Viel(e)

Those two/three/four – Diese zwei/drei/vier

**

Any – Irgendwelche(s)

A bit – Ein bisschen

A little – Ein wenig

One/You (eg. ‘One can do this’) – Man

Several – Mehrere

Such/of the like – Solche

 

Take a look at some of the above words in action:

 

Niemand will heute Abend mitgehen ———– Nobody wants to go this evening.

 

Einige von uns gehen ins Kino ——- A few of us are going to the cinema.

 

Beide sehen gut aus ———- Both look good.

 

Mehrere von uns wollen mitgehen ———– Several of us want to go.

 

Alle hier sind verrückt ————– Everyone here is crazy.

 

Irgendetwas stimmt nicht ———— Something is not right.

 

Jemand muss mir helfen ———— Someone needs to help me.

 

Solche Sachen sind hier verboten ———- Such things are forbidden here.

 

Man muss das Fenster aufmachen  ———- One/you must open the window.

 

Sie ist heute ein bisschen langsam ———— She’s a bit slow today.

 

Ein wenig Butter und dann stimmt’s ———– A little butter and then it‘s perfect.

 

Ich gehe nirgendwo hin ———- I’m going nowhere.

 

Ich brauche irgendwelche Gedichte für meine Hausaufgaben ——– I need any/some sort of poems for my homework.

 

Es steckt irgendwo im Schrank ———— It’s somewhere in the wardrobe.

 

I hope this post has been helpful. Any questions, let us know in the comments!

Constanze