ik, jij, hij — mij, jou, hem — mijn, jouw, zijn. All the personal, possessive and reflexive pronouns in clean tables, plus a quiz that drills the ones everyone gets wrong: hen vs hun, ons vs onze.
The doer of the action: ik, jij, hij, zij, wij…
| Person | Dutch |
|---|---|
| I | ik |
| you (informal) | jijweak: je |
| you (formal) | u |
| he | hij |
| she | zijweak: ze |
| it | hetweak: 't |
| we | wijweak: we |
| you (plural) | jullie |
| they | zijweak: ze |
The doer of the action: ik, jij, hij, zij, wij…
On the receiving end: mij, jou, hem, haar, ons, hen/hun.
Whose it is: mijn, jouw, zijn, haar, ons/onze, hun.
Back on the subject: me, je, zich, ons.
Subject forms: ik (I), jij/je (you), u (you, formal), hij (he), zij/ze (she), het (it), wij/we (we), jullie (you plural), zij/ze (they). Object forms: mij/me, jou/je, u, hem, haar, het, ons, jullie, hen/hun. Many have a strong and a weak form — jij vs je — and you'll hear the weak one constantly in everyday speech.
Both mean 'them', and this trips up native speakers too. Use hen as a direct object and after a preposition (ik zie hen, ik geef het aan hen). Use hun as an indirect object without a preposition (ik geef hun het boek — I give them the book). hun is also the possessive: hun huis (their house). When in doubt, hen after a preposition is the safe rule.
They're both the possessive 'our'. Use ons before het-words (ons huis, ons kind) and onze before de-words and all plurals (onze auto, onze kinderen). It's the same de/het split that governs articles and adjectives, so learning a noun's gender pays off here too.
They point the action back at the subject, used with verbs like zich wassen (to wash oneself) and zich voelen (to feel). The forms are me (ik), je (jij), zich (hij/zij/het/u and plural zij), ons (wij), je (jullie). zich does a lot of work — it covers he, she, it, you-formal and they.
Vocabulary, grammar and all five DUO sections — Reading, Listening, Writing, Speaking and KNM — in the real exam format.