The Personal Pronouns

Many people are not keen on grammar. I think it is great and I am not sure whether this is because grammar has a bad press or whether I am just in a minority. Let's take verbs and the usual starting point is the present tense. It means something is happening now. Let's take the verb 'to make' as and example. In English we say I am making, I do make or I make. They all mean the same thing and they are all happening now in the present tense.

It is easier in German because you don't have three choices. You just say ich mache. Once you have learned the personal pronouns then you don't have to learn them again for any other verb. These pronouns are personal because they stand for people animals or things. I, you, he, she, it, we and they make up the personal pronouns except in German you have to learn three ways to say you. There is du for the person you know well, ihr when you are talking to a group, and Sie (notice the capital) when you are talking to someone you don't know too well. It is the polite way to say you.

So the way to learn the regular verbs is to learn the pattern for the personal pronouns. Ich, du er, sie es, wir, ihr, sie und Sie. The reason we learn the sie and Sie together is because they conjugate in the same way. If you are not sure what conjugate means then look what you have done. You look for the different ways of saying the verb in different tenses.

Bis bald