German indefinite pronouns, Indefinitpronomen, stand in for a noun to refer to people or things in a general, unspecified way, like jemand (someone), etwas (something), alle (everyone), or man (one/you). They are among the most useful words in the language, and this guide from SPRACHCAFFE explains what they are, the ones you need most, how the declinable ones change, and an exercise to test yourself.
- Hast du über etwas gesprochen? → Did you talk about something?
The main German indefinite pronouns
They fall into three groups by what they refer to.
For people: - man → one / you (impersonal, general statements) - jemand → someone; niemand → no one - jeder / jede / jedes → everyone, each - einer / eine / eines → one; keiner / keine / keines → none, no one
For things: - etwas → something; nichts → nothing - alles → everything - welcher / welche / welches → some / any (of a noun already mentioned)
For people or things (quantities): - alle → all, everyone - beide → both - einige → some; mehrere → several; viele → many; wenige → few - manche → some, several; einzelne → individual ones
"man": the impersonal one/you
Man is used for general statements that apply to people in general, much like English "one" or the general "you." It is always the subject and always takes a third-person singular verb.
- Hier darf man nicht rauchen. → You can't smoke here. / One may not smoke here.
Man has no genitive; in the accusative it becomes einen and in the dative einem (Das macht einen müde → That makes one tired).
The prefix irgend-
Adding irgend- to certain indefinite pronouns strengthens the sense of "any at all," translating roughly as English "any":
- irgendein → any (one)
- irgendjemand → anyone
- irgendetwas → anything
- irgendwer → anyone at all
Determiner or pronoun?
The same word can be a determiner or a pronoun. As a determiner it comes before a noun (jeder Mann → every man). As a pronoun it stands alone and replaces the noun (Jeder weiß das → everyone knows that). If the word is standing in for the noun rather than sitting in front of one, it is being used as a pronoun.
