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🔁 Compendium
Grammar
DE
Deutsch — Reflexive pronoun forms
German reflexive pronouns have their own accusative and dative forms. The dative appears when the sentence already has a direct object: ich wasche mir die Hände.
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How it works
✓ Rule
The reflexive pronoun matches the person of the subject. In the 1st and 2nd person singular the accusative and dative differ (mich/mir, dich/dir); everywhere else they are identical. Use the accusative when the pronoun is the direct object — ich wasche mich — and the dative when another word is the direct object — ich wasche mir die Hände.
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Forms
| Person | Accusative | Dative |
|---|---|---|
| ich | mich | mir |
| du | dich | dir |
| er / sie / es | sich | sich |
| wir | uns | uns |
| ihr | euch | euch |
| sie / Sie | sich | sich |
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Good to know
⚠ Note
The mich/mir difference only shows up in the 1st and 2nd person singular, so that is where mistakes happen. If a direct object is present, use the dative: say ich putze mir die Zähne, not ich putze mich die Zähne.