This document provides an overview of how to use the informal plural "you" (ihr) in German. It covers the nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive cases of ihr and includes examples for regular and irregular verb conjugations. The goal is to help German language learners, especially beginners and intermediates, who struggle with this grammar point. It aims to explain the key forms and uses of ihr in a straightforward manner without overcomplicating the content.

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You, plural, informal

2. This slide show is for all those students who told me they
struggle with the informal plural you “ihr” in all its forms.
Those who are still in their first year of learning German
won‟t have come across all of the grammar mentioned here,
so please ignore anything unknown (only for the time
being!).
Those who have been learning German for a long time, may
find that I haven‟t covered everything. As it‟s mainly
beginners/ intermediates who told me about their struggle, I
didn‟t want to make it too complicated.
For everybody else, I hope this will be a useful reminder. It
may even give you a “I already know all this” moment –
which sometimes is very nice


3. NOMINATIVE
You (plural informal) as the subject
When the subject of the sentence is you, as in
plural informal, or „you lot‟, then it‟s ihr in
German.
• Wo seid ihr? Where are you?
• Wohnt ihr hier? Do you live here?
• Ihr habt ein schönes Haus? You have
a nice house.

4. NOMINATIVE
If the subject of the sentence is „your something‟, then we need
euer … or eure …, depending on the gender of the following noun.
Da sind sie – There they are:
• euer Hund (your dog, masculine)
• eure Katze (your cat, female)
• euer Kaninchen (your rabbit, neuter)
• eure Fische (your fish, plural)

5. ACCUSATIVE
If „you‟ is the direct object of the sentence or comes after an
accusative preposition, we need „euch‟.
• Ich werde euch besuchen. I‟ll visit you.
• Das ist für euch. That‟s for you.
The other accusative prepositions are: bis, durch, gegen, ohne, um, entlang and could be in, an,
auf, hinter,neben,über, unter, vor, zwischen.

6. ACCUSATIVE
If the direct object of the sentence is „your something‟, we need
euren, eure or euer.
Ich sehe – I see:
• euren Hund (your dog, masculine)
• eure Katze (your cat, feminine)
• euer Kaninchen (your rabbit, neuter)
• eure Fische (your fish, plural)

7. DATIVE
If „you‟ is the indirect object meaning to whom something is done/
given etc to, or after dative prepositions, then we also use „euch‟:
• Ich gebe euch meine Zeitung. I‟m giving (to) you my newspaper.
• Ich gehe mit euch ins Kino. I‟m going with you to the cinema.
The other dative prepositions are aus, bei, nach, seit, von, zu or could be in, an, auf, hinter,
neben, über, unter, vor, zwischen.

8. DATIVE
If „to whom‟ actually means „to your something …‟, then we need
eurem, eurer and euren:
• Ich spreche zu eurem Hund (m). I talk to your dog.
• Ich spreche zu eurer Katze(f). I talk to your cat.
• Ich spreche zu eurem Kaninchen (n). I talk to your rabbit.
• Ich spreche zu euren Fischen (pl). I talk to your fish 

9. GENITIVE
In the genitive case we need to say „of you‟ which is not used with
pronouns (you may still find it in old books). Usually, there is a
dative preposition we can use instead.
After genitive prepositions we do use the pronoun, which is – just
as in the accusative and dative case - euch:
• Wegen euch habe ich jetzt eine Erkältung. Because of you I
now have a cold.

10. GENITIVE
If, however, we‟re talking about „of your something…‟, then we
need eures and eurer.
Wo ist das Futter – where‟s the food
• eures Hundes (m) – of your dog
• eurer Katze (f) – of your cat
• eures Kaninchens (n) – of your rabbit
• eurer Fische (pl)? – of your fish?

11. VERB ENDINGS – REGULAR VERBS
• Ihr spielt - you play/ are playing
• Ihr spieltet – you played (written German)
• Ihr habt gespielt - you have played (spoken German)
• Ihr hattet gespielt – you had played
• Ihr werdet spielen – you will play
(I have not mentioned all the tenses, only the most common ones)

12. VERB ENDINGS – IRREGULAR VERBS
This is only one example of an irregular verb. It also takes „sein‟ instead of „haben‟.
• Ihr geht - you go/ are going
• Ihr gingt– you went (written German)
• Ihr seid gegangen - you have gone (spoken German)
• Ihr wart gegangen – you had gone
• Ihr werdet gehen – you will go
(I have not mentioned all the tenses, only the most common ones)

13. And finally:
•
Reflexive verbs:
Wann trefft ihr euch? When will you meet?
• Imperative:
Spielt! Play!
Geht! Go!

14. I hope, this has made it a bit easier for you. If
you still have questions, pop over to
www.angelikasgerman.co.uk and ask me.
I‟m happy to help 