Genau
Topic test · A2

Personal pronouns test

10questions
8minutes
60%pass mark
Start the test Read the topic first

One question at a time, the clock runs. Answers stay closed like a real exam: you see every correct answer with its explanation at the end. Score 60% to finish the topic.

Topic test

10 questions, easy to hard

Pick an option and press «Next». You can go back and change it. Anything left blank counts as wrong.

Kannst du helfen?

Can you help me?

mir. helfen takes the dative, although «help me» feels like a plain object in English. Same group: danken · folgen · antworten · vertrauen. Learn the case together with the verb, not separately.

Giving the book to him, both as pronouns: Ich gebe .

es ihm. With two nouns the dative comes first (Ich gebe dem Mann das Buch), but with two pronouns the order flips and the accusative leads. ihn is wrong as well — das Buch is neuter, so its accusative is es.

«Ich danke ihr.» — who are you thanking?

her. Here ihr is the dative of sie (she). «You all» in the dative is euch, and «them» is ihnen. The subject form ihr = «you all» is a different word that happens to be spelled the same.

Ich warte auf den Zug. → Ich warte .

I am waiting for it.

darauf. The train is a thing, so the preposition fuses with da- and the pronoun disappears. auf es does not exist in German at all. auf ihn would be right only for a person: Ich warte auf meinen Bruder → auf ihn.

Wo ist der Schlüssel? — Ich sehe nicht.

Where's the key? — I can't see it.

der Schlüssel is masculine — its pronoun is er/ihn, not es. Objects keep their grammatical gender.

Wie geht es ? (asking your boss, politely)

The polite pronoun in the dative is Ihnen — capitalised everywhere.

Two pronouns — which order? «I'll show it to you.»

With two pronouns, accusative comes first: es dir · es ihm. With two nouns it's the other way round.

Which verb forces dative on its object?

helfen · danken · gefallen · gehören take dative. fragen and sehen take accusative.

die Lampe — which pronoun?

Feminine noun → sie, even for objects: Die Lampe? Sie ist neu.

«I'll call you tomorrow.» —

anrufen takes ACCUSATIVE (dich) — and the prefix splits to the end.
Quick rules

The rules in three lines

The full topic lives on its own page. This is only the core you need for the test.

  1. Three columns per person

    ich → mich → mir · du → dich → dir · er → ihn → ihm. The verb decides the column.

    Ich frage dich. · Ich helfe dir.

  2. Objects keep their gender

    der Schlüssel → er/ihn · die Lampe → sie. Calling everything es is the classic error.

    Ich sehe ihn nicht.

  3. Two pronouns: accusative first

    Ich gebe es ihm. · Ich zeige es dir. With two nouns the order is reversed.

    Ich gebe es ihm.

  4. Things with prepositions → da-

    Ich warte darauf, not auf es. People keep the real pronoun.

    Ich warte darauf.

Traps

Commonly mixed up

Where a direct translation breaks. The hard questions come from here.

  • Ich helfe dich.

    Ich helfe dir.

    helfen forces the dative column.

  • Der Schlüssel? Ich sehe es nicht.

    Ich sehe ihn nicht.

    Masculine object → ihn.

  • Ich gebe ihm es.

    Ich gebe es ihm.

    Accusative pronoun first.

  • Ich rufe dir an.

    Ich rufe dich an.

    anrufen takes accusative — English «call to» misleads.