All About German Indefinite Pronouns – Man, Jemand, Niemand, Etwas, Nichts, Alle/ Die Indefinitpronomen

In this lesson, you will learn what is meant by German indefinite pronouns and the meaning of Man, Jemand, Niemand, Etwas, Nichts, Alle.  You will also learn what German indefinite pronouns there are, what forms and special properties they have and how to use them in sentences.

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CONTENTS

Difference between Indefinitpronomen and Indefinitartikel
man
jemand / niemand & jedermann
ein (eine,ein) / kein (keine, kein)
etwas / nichts
jeder (jede, jedes) – mancher (manche, manches)

Indefinite pronouns that represent some vague and undefined concepts are: man, jemand, niemand, etwas, nichts alle, einige, jede/-r/-s, and some others.

Difference between Indefinitpronomen and Indefinitartikel

Yes, you saw correctly, as with possessive pronouns, so with indefinite pronouns in German we have two expressions: Indefinitpronomen and Indefinitartikel. They have a different role in the sentence.

The indefinite pronoun REPLACES the noun.

The indefinite article stands BEFORE the noun.

(a) Ich brauche einen Teller. Bringst du mir bitte einen. (Indefinitpronomen)
(b) Wir feiern jedes Fest? (Indefintartikel)

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Grammar Contents

Man

The indefinite pronoun man in German corresponds to the English word one. Unlike one, the German pronoun man is not restricted to formal usage. Instead, it corresponds to the general use of you in spoken English, or often to we, they or people.

Overusing the word Leute (people) in contexts where man would be appropriate is typical of English learners of German. It’s also often used in situations where English would naturally use a passive construction, for example: “Man sagt” for “It is said.” The corresponding pronouns are possessive “sein” and reflexive “sich.”

Man can replace an indefinite person (or persons) and has only the nominative singular form, while the dative and accusative cases are borrowed from the indefinite article einem and einen.

In the accusative and dative einen and einem are used:

N. man    
G. eines 
D. einem
A. einen

For example:
Was man muss, fällt einem nicht schwer.- What you have to do is not difficult.
Man hat sich nach dir erkundigt.  People were/Somebody was asking after you

Man sollte seinen Freunden helfen. One ought to help one’s friends

When the performer of an action is not clearly determined and defined, the pronoun man is used as the subject of the sentence.

For example:
Man sagt …. – It is said ….
Man behauptet …, – It is claimed …,/ They claim …,
Man muss hier leise sein. – You have to be quiet here.
Hier darf man nicht rauchen. – Smoking is not permitted here.
Man darf hier nicht rauchen. – Smoking is not permitted here. (And this sentence is translated in the same way as the previous one. Only the word order in German is different)

Sentences in the passive voice, in which the performer of the action is not mentioned, correspond to sentences in the active voice with man as the subject:

Der Tisch wird gedeckt. – Man deckt den Tisch.
Der Dieb ist verhaftet worden. – Man hat den Dieb verhaftet.

This includes both singular and plural.

jemand / niemand & jedermann

The pronouns jemand (somebody, someone), niemand (nobody, no-one’) and jedermann (everyone) also represent one or more persons. All three pronouns are declined like nouns. Jemand and niemandcan have definite article endings in the dative and accusative, but they can remain unchanged in both the dative and accusative.

For example:

Hallo? Ist jemand da?  Ich glaube, hier ist niemand. – Hello? Is anyone there? I don’t think there’s anyone here.
Du musst jemand(en) fragen. – You have to ask someone(s).
Ich habe niemand/niemanden getroffen. – I haven’t met anyone.
Er hat  jemand/jemandem  seinen Bericht gegeben. – He gave someone/someone his report.

Niemand is the negation of jemand and both have the same endings:

Du sollst niemand(en) fragen. – You shouldn’t ask anyone(s).
Sie wollte mit niemandem von uns sprechen. – She didn’t want to talk to any of us.

The meaning of the indefinite pronouns jemand, ein (eine,ein) and etwas may be emphasized by combining it with irgend:
irgendjemand – anyone
irgendein – any
irgendetwas- anything

For example:

Das Rezept hat mir irgendjemand einmal gegeben. – Someone once gave me this recipe.
Melden Sie sich, wenn Sie irgendeine Frage haben. – Get in touch if you have any questions.
Hast du irgendetwas gehört? – Have you heard anything?

In colloquial speech, einer and wer are common alternatives to jemand, and, as is keiner for niemand.

When jemand or niemand are followed by an adjective in the accusative or dative case, they are usually endingless. The adjective is treated as a noun and can have the ending -es in all cases, though it is now more common for it to have the endings -en in the accusative case and -em in the dative case.

For example:

Jemand Fremdes hat angerufen. – A stranger has called.
Ich habe jemand Fremden angerufen – I called someone I didn’t know ( a stranger)
Ich habe mit jemand Fremdem gesprochen. – I was talking to a stranger.

In the nominative case, the use of the ending –er, as in jemand Fremder, is a regionalism found in the southern dialects.

jemand and niemand can be used similarly with the adjective ander-, which always starts with a lowercase letter in all these forms.

For example:

Jemand anders hat angerufen. – Someone else called.
Ich habe jemand anders/anderen angerufen. – I called someone else.
Ich habe mit jemand anders/anderem gesprochen. – I spoke to someone else.

The adjective “anders” most often has the ending -s in all cases; however, the endings -en and -em are typical of southern dialects.

ein (eine,ein) / kein (keine, kein)

The pronoun ein (eine, ein) denotes an unknown, unspecified person or thing. Ein (eine,ein) is declined like the indefinite article and has no plural.

If ein (eine, ein) stands alone, without a noun, then the Nominative singular is as follows:
masculine – einer
neuter – ein(e)s
feminine – eine
and the accusative neuter singular is: eines
For example:
Ich esse am liebsten Äpfel und nehme mir jeden Tag einen mit zur Arbeit. My favorite food is apples and I take one to work every day.
Mirko will sich ein neues Handy kaufen. Mirko wants to buy a new cell phone.
– Wirklich. Really.
– Aber er hat schon doch eins. But he already has one.
– Er sagt eins ist nicht genug. He says that one is not enough.

Kein( keine, kein)  is the negative form of the indefinite article. Its basic declension is identical to ein, but it does have plural forms as definite article. It is used typically where a corresponding positive sentence would have an indefinite article or no article, and it thus usually corresponds to English ‘not a’, ‘not … any ‘ or ‘no’:

For example:

SINGULAR: Hat den Stuhl einer von euch zerbrochen? – Nein, Von uns war es keiner.
PLURAL: Hast du mir die Briefmarken mitgebracht? – Nein, tut mir leid. Auf der Post hatten sie keine

SINGULAR: Er hat ein Haus  / Er hat kein Haus
PLURAL: Wir haben frische Eier. /  Wir haben keine frischen Eier.
SINGULAR:Sie hat Zeit. /   Sie hat keine Zeit mehr.

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Grammar Contents

etwas / nichts

Etwas replaces undefined terms and things and has no declension.

For example:
Ich will dir etwas sagen. – I want to tell you something.
Sie hat etwas gesehen. – Sie hat etwas gesehen.

Nichts represents the negation of the pronoun etwas and is also unchanging.

For example:

Ich darf dir nichts sagen. – I’m not allowed to tell you anything.
Er hat nichts gesehen. – He didn’t see anything.

Since only one negation is allowed in a German sentence, no other negation can appear with nichts, niemand and similar words.

For example:

Niemand ist zu Hause. – No one is at home.
Sie will niemanden treffen. – She doesn’t want to meet anyone.
Er hat seit gestern nichts gegessen. – He hasn’t eaten since yesterday.

When etwas or nichts comes before an adjective, the adjective is often used as a noun to which the suffix -es is added. Don’t forget, that nouns are capitalized in German.

For example:
Möchtest du etwas Teueres kaufen? – Do you want to buy something expensive?
Ich möchte etwas Bequemes kaufen. –I want to buy something comfortable.
Er träumt davon, etwas Großes zu erreichen. –He dreams of achieving something big.
Ich hoffe, es ist nichts Schlimmes passiert.- I hope nothing bad has happened.

Jeder (jede, jedes) – mancher (manche, manches)

The pronouns jeder (jede, jedes) and mancher (manche, manches) are declined as indefinite articles. The plural of jeder is alle.

jeder

mancher

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