German has a useful middle ground between naming a person or thing and replacing it with er, sie or es. Words such as dieser (this one), jeder (every one) and jemand (someone) can point, count or keep a person deliberately unspecific.
The good news is that most of them reuse endings you already meet on der, die, das. Learn one pattern and several words come with it.
dieser points to a particular one
dieser / diese / dieses means this or this one. It can stand before a noun or replace the noun completely.
Dieser Zug fährt nach Köln. — This train goes to Cologne.
Welchen Zug meinst du? Diesen. — Which train do you mean? This one.
| masculine | feminine | neuter | plural | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| nominative | dieser | diese | dieses | diese |
| accusative | diesen | diese | dieses | diese |
| dative | diesem | dieser | diesem | diesen |
| genitive | dieses | dieser | dieses | dieser |
The endings are loud enough to show gender and case by themselves. That is why the same form works with or without a following noun.
Ich nehme diese Jacke. — I’ll take this jacket.
Ich nehme diese. — I’ll take this one.
jener (that one), solcher (such a) and welcher (which one) use the same endings. Jener is uncommon in conversation; Germans usually use der da or dieser and let the situation show the distance.
jeder means every, but stays singular
jeder / jede / jedes means every or each. Because it considers the members one by one, the noun and verb are singular.
Jeder Tag ist anders. — Every day is different.
Ich lerne jeden Tag. — I study every day.
Sie spricht mit jedem Gast. — She speaks with every guest.
It takes the same endings as dieser. The common forms are therefore jeder (masculine nominative), jede (feminine nominative or accusative), jedes (neuter nominative or accusative), jeden (masculine accusative) and jedem (masculine or neuter dative).
For a plural idea, use alle rather than a plural of jeder.
Alle Gäste sind da. — All the guests are here.
Ich kenne jeden Gast. — I know every guest.
mancher means some, not an unknown amount
mancher / manche / manches means some in the sense of some people or things, but not all. It also follows the dieser pattern.
Manche Leute trinken keinen Kaffee. — Some people do not drink coffee.
Mancher Fehler ist nützlich. — Some mistakes are useful.
For a neutral quantity, German more often uses einige (several/some) or etwas (some, with uncountable things).
| Meaning | German | Example |
|---|---|---|
| some members of a group | manche | manche Leute |
| several | einige | einige Minuten |
| some amount | etwas | etwas Wasser |
| nothing | nichts | nichts Neues |
jemand and niemand change only when case needs it
jemand means someone and niemand means nobody. They have no gender distinction. In careful German, add -en for accusative and -em for dative.
| Case | someone | nobody |
|---|---|---|
| nominative | jemand | niemand |
| accusative | jemanden | niemanden |
| dative | jemandem | niemandem |
Jemand wartet draußen. — Someone is waiting outside.
Ich suche jemanden. — I am looking for someone.
Hast du mit jemandem gesprochen? — Did you speak with anyone?
In conversation you will also hear unchanged jemand and niemand in the accusative or dative. The endings are still the clearest safe forms to produce yourself.
man means people in general
The pronoun man means one, you or people in general. It always takes a third-person singular verb.
In Deutschland trinkt man viel Kaffee. — People drink a lot of coffee in Germany.
Wie sagt man das auf Deutsch? — How do you say that in German?
Its object forms come from einer: accusative einen, dative einem.
Das macht einen müde. — That makes you tired.
Das fällt einem sofort auf. — You notice that immediately.
Do not confuse man with der Mann. The pronoun has one n, is never capitalised except at the start of a sentence, and does not mean a male person.
These words can stand alone
When the noun is obvious, German usually drops it. The ending still carries the missing noun’s gender and case.
Welche Tasse möchtest du? — Which cup would you like?
Diese hier. — This one here.
Kennst du jeden Kollegen? — Do you know every colleague?
Nein, nur manche. — No, only some.
That is the bridge between a determiner and a pronoun: dieser Zug points before a noun; dieser points without repeating it.
What to actually memorise
Use the dieser endings as the master pattern. Then remember jeder + singular, alle + plural, and the case trio jemand / jemanden / jemandem. Treat man as third-person singular and keep it separate from Mann.
Rules stick faster once you have met the words. Every example above links to its own page.
Practise in the trainer