Below you find the personal pronouns in Dutch. These are the stressed forms, but it is important to note that pronouns also have an unstressed counterpart. See >Stressed and Unstressed Pronouns for more information about the difference between their stressed and unstressed forms.

There are two types of personal pronouns: subject pronouns and object pronouns. Subject personal pronouns, as the name suggests, take the >>subject position in a sentence. Ze in the example above is a subject personal pronoun.

Object personal pronouns can be subdivided into >>direct object and >>indirect object pronouns.

The direct object pronoun stands in the place of the direct object, and is, therefore, the person or thing undergoing the action in the sentence. Look at the sentences below:

The direct object in both sentences is mijn vriend. The repetition of the word vriend is odd and therefore a direct object pronouns must be used to break the pattern. The following sounds much better:

The indirect object pronoun stands in the place of the indirect object, and is, therefore, the recipient of the direct object in a sentence. Look at the example below:

In this sentence De docent is the subject and een dictee is the direct object - the dictation is the thing that is given. De kinderen are the recipients of the direct object - they are the indirect object. In the following version of the sentence the pronoun ze is used to replace de kinderen.

The forms for direct object pronoun and indirect object pronoun are the same, except for the stressed form of the third person plural: hen (direct object) ann hun (indirect object).

More information about the difference between the formal and informal second-person personal pronouns u and jij/jouis given in Politeness.

Pronouns of the third person singular are divided into masculine, feminine and neuter. There is more information about this in >Gender and Pronouns.

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