If you're learning German, you may have come across the words du
and dich
and
wondered what the difference between them might be!
And while German grammar isn't always easy to understand, the difference between those two words should not be too difficult to grasp.
The difference between du
and dich
in German is this: Du
is used as the
subject of a sentence, whereas dich
is used as the object of a sentence.
Du
is a nominative pronoun, whereas dich
is an accusative pronoun.
The words du
and dich
are both German pronouns, but
they play different roles in a sentence.
Du
is used as the subject of a sentence, like "you" in English. It is used
when we are talking directly to someone. And since it's always the subject of a sentence,
Du
is a pronoun in the nominative case.
Dich
functions the other way around: Dich
is used as the object of a sentence, like "you" in English when someone
is receiving the action. It is used after certain verbs like "to see s.b.", "to help s.b." or "to love s.b." etc. that
receive a direct object. It is in the accusative case.
If you are unsure what it means for a noun to be in the nominative or accusative case, you might want to check out our posts on German declension and the German cases.
Here are some more examples using du
& dich
. Click on the gray bars to
reveal the translations of the German phrases.
du
Learning when to use du
and dich
may take some practice, but don't worry!
Keep using these pronouns in conversations and writing, and you'll get the hang of it.
Remember to use du
as the subject when talking to someone informally, and dich
as the
object when someone is receiving the action.
Keep exploring the German language, and soon you'll be a pro at using these pronouns correctly.
Download our free pdf for German learners, with 99 German words & idioms. Each idiom comes with an example, a translation & helpful vocabulary.
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