Mich or mir?
Choose the case from the construction. Sehen takes an accusative object; helfen takes dative. Being a person does not decide the case.
Nora sieht mich. Nora hilft mir.
Nora sees me. Nora helps me.
Replace the whole noun phrase
Remove the article with the noun. For the masculine object der Schlüssel, the accusative replacement is ihn.
Nora sucht den Schlüssel. Nora sucht ihn.
Nora is looking for the key. Nora is looking for it.
A recipient with geben
With geben, the receiver takes dative. The thing given remains a separate object.
Nora gibt dem Bruder das Foto. Nora gibt ihm das Foto.
Nora gives the brother the photo. Nora gives him the photo.
Uns and euch can serve both cases
These forms have the same spelling in accusative and dative. Read the verb pattern to tell the case.
Nora sieht uns. Nora hilft uns.
Nora sees us. Nora helps us.
Sie or sie?
Formal address keeps a capital letter: accusative Sie, dative Ihnen. Third-person plural uses lowercase sie and ihnen within a sentence.
Nora hilft ihnen. Nora hilft Ihnen.
Nora helps them. Nora helps you (formal).
Practise personal pronouns
The A1 block includes a reference for every person, explanations, controlled practice, a block check and spaced review. Course access or an eligible seven-day trial is required. The first 10 blocks of each language remain free.
Explore this grammar blockConnect the patterns
Review dative recipients and accusative objects before replacing their noun phrases. Then connect complete statements with und, oder, aber and denn.
Sources and scope
Original teaching examples informed by IDS grammis on pronouns and verb-selected object cases. This introduction uses clear references; it does not cover every pronoun use or the order of two object pronouns.