German

What is the difference between the words 'ihr' and 'dein’?

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Lorenzo Peroni, German is my mother tongue in cheek

Updated 6h ago

Both are German pronouns, but ihr has several very different functions, while dein is pretty straightforward.

Let’s start with the easier case thus:

• dein — i.e. “your” — is the possessive form of du — i.e. “you” (2nd person singular).
  Example: du hast dein Auto gewaschen — you washed your car.

On the other hand, ihr as such is ambiguous, you need more context to get the intended meaning:

1. ihr — i.e. “her” — can be used possessively like dein, but for the 3rd person singular, sie — “she”.
   Example: sie hat ihr Auto gewaschen — she washed her car.
2. ihr — as in “their” — can also be a possessive for the 3rd person plural, sie — “they”
   Example: sie haben ihr Auto gewaschen — they washed their car (not to be mixed up with the capitalized polite form: Sie haben Ihr Auto gewaschen — you washed your car … Sir)
3. ihr can be a personal pronoun in the 2nd person plural — i.e. “you”.
   Example: ihr wisst, was ihr wissen müsst — you know what you need to know
4. Finally, ihr can be a dative (wem?) of sie — which in English would also be “her”.
   Example: ich gebe ihr mein Auto — I give her my car

Combining #1, #3 and #4 will yield things like: dann habt ihr ihr ihr Auto zurückgegeben — then you gave her her car back :->

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Peter J. Wright, I started learning German while in school in Sweden, and continued in college.

Written Wed

“Ihr” (written with a lowercase “i”) is the second person plural nominative pronoun. “Euch” (also written lowercase) is the corresponding accusative pronoun, of which “euer” is the possessive pronoun.

“Du,” “dich” and “dein” is the second person singular pronoun.

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