Dutch pronouns: subject, object and possessive, with je and u

Dutch pronouns at a glance

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Where a cell has two forms, the first is the full form and the second the short one, which is the one you hear most. Ons and onze, and hen, hun and ze, work differently: the choice depends on the noun or on the sentence. Both are explained below.

Subject pronouns: full and short forms

The subject pronoun is the one that does the action: ik in Ik woon in Utrecht. Four of them have a short form that is also written: je for jij, we for wij, and ze for zij, both for she and for they. The short form is the normal one, in speech and in most texts; the full form adds stress. U and jullie have one form only.

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Ze means she or they, and the verb tells you which: ze fietst is she, ze fietsen is they. Jullie takes the plural verb too: jullie wonen. U takes the form with -t and keeps it in a question: u woont, Waar woont u? With je and jij the -t drops when the pronoun comes right after the verb: je woont, but Waar woon je? The page on Dutch question words has more examples of this.

The forms marked "in speech" are what ik, hij and het sound like in a quick sentence: Komt ie? for Komt hij? You see them in chat messages, rarely in a text. Het is also the it of the weather and the time: Het regent, het is laat.

Je for anyone

Je also means you in general, anyone, where English might say one: In Nederland kom je op tijd, dat weet ze (Solliciteren). In this meaning only je is possible, never jij.

When to use the full form

The short forms je, ze, we and me cannot carry stress. When a pronoun needs stress, for a contrast or when it stands on its own, Dutch uses the full form:

• Ik drink koffie. En jij? I am having coffee. And you? (a contrast)
• Zij werkt, hij niet. She works, he does not.
• Wie heeft de sleutel? Hij. Who has the key? He does. (on its own)
• ‘Jij bent de nieuwe?’ vraagt ze. You are the new one? she asks. (the stress is on you; De fiets van 40 euro)

The other way round sounds unnatural too. A text full of jij, zij and wij sounds as if every sentence is a contrast. Say Waar woon je?, and keep Waar woon jij? for "and where do you live?" In writing, wij and zij also appear without special stress, on signs and in letters: Wij zoeken een medewerker voor de winkel is the note in the bakery window in Solliciteren.

Je or u?

Dutch has two words for you: je or jij, the informal one, and u, the polite one. U is the same for one person and for a group; the informal word for a group is jullie.

• Say u to people you do not know, older people, officials at the gemeente, the assistant at the doctor’s practice, and anyone you are not sure about. Letters from the gemeente, the school or the doctor usually say u too.
• Say je to friends, family, children, colleagues and most people your age. Shop staff and waiters often say je to you; you can still say u back.
• Switch to je when someone says Zeg maar je (just say je) or gives you their first name.

It does not have to go both ways. An older neighbor may say je to you while you say u to her, and an employer may write u in the email and say je at the interview: both happen in the texts quoted below. Saying u is never rude, at most a little formal. The everyday phrases in both forms, from Hoe gaat het met je? to Dank u wel, are on basic Dutch words and phrases.

The verb after u

U takes the verb form with -t, the same as hij, and keeps it in a question: u werkt, Werkt u hier? (compare Werk je hier?). A few common verbs are different:

• zijn: u bent, not u is, which is old-fashioned. ‘Waarom bent u een goede planner?’ (Storing)
• hebben: u hebt and u heeft are both correct, and you will see both. ‘Dan heeft u een nieuwe afspraak nodig,’ zegt meneer Smit, en hij kijkt op zijn scherm. (De pasfoto)
• kunnen, willen, zullen: u kunt, u wilt and u zult are the usual written forms; u kan, u wil and u zal are also correct. ‘Wilt u proeven?’ (Op de markt)

The object form is u as well (Ik help u), the possessive is uw (uw zoon), and the reflexive is zich, or also u: U vergist zich and U vergist u are both standard, and zich is more usual in the Netherlands. All the verb forms are in the tables on Dutch verb conjugation.

Object pronouns

Use the object form when the pronoun is the object of the verb, and after a preposition: Ik zie hem, Ik praat met hem. Where the pronoun stands does not matter: Hem ken ik niet, dat ik hem zie. As with the subject, the short forms me and je are the usual ones in speech, and mij and jou add stress. In writing mij is also common without stress, above all after a preposition: met mij.

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Hen, hun or ze

For them, careful written Dutch has two forms, and speech mostly uses a third:

• hen as the direct object and after a preposition: Ik ken hen al lang. Dit cadeau is voor hen. Bij hen thuis zijn er geen luizen, denkt Sofia, want dat kan niet. (Luizen)
• hun as the indirect object, without a preposition: Ik geef hun een cadeau (I give them a present). A test: if you could say aan hen or voor hen instead, it is hun.
• ze for both, in speech and in neutral writing: Ik ken ze al lang. Ik geef ze een cadeau. The limit is after a preposition, where writing uses hen: voor hen, not voor ze.

Hen and hun are only for people. For things, Dutch uses ze or die: De appels? Ik heb ze al gekocht.

One use of hun you will hear and should not copy: hun as the subject, Hun hebben geen tijd. It is common in speech in the Netherlands, but it is not standard Dutch, and many people see it as a mistake. Say Ze hebben geen tijd, or Zij hebben geen tijd with stress. Hun is also the possessive, their: hun kinderen.

Possessive pronouns

The possessive comes before the noun and does not change with it, with one exception: ons and onze.

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Ons or onze

Onze goes with a de-word and with every plural; ons goes with a het-word in the singular. It is the same split as an adjective after een (rule 7 of the twelve grammar rules): een klein huis, ons huis, but een kleine stad, onze stad. So it helps to know whether the noun is de or het.

• onze bus (de bus): ‘Dat was onze bus, hè? Dat komt door mij.’ (Storing)
• ons huis (het huis), but onze huizen (plural)
• onze kinderen, onze buren (plurals)

Je or jouw, and jou or jouw

Je is the normal possessive: je fiets, je naam. Jouw is for stress: ‘Ik had eerst jouw naam,’ fluistert Bas (Een gedicht voor de baas). Learners mix up jou and jouw because they sound the same: jou is you, the object, and jouw is your. Is die fiets van jou? but Is dat jouw fiets? With jullie, je can be the possessive too: Jullie moeten je jas meenemen.

M’n, z’n, d’r and van mij

In speech mijn, zijn and haar shrink to m’n, z’n and d’r, and you read the short forms in chat messages and in dialogue. In a letter or an email, write the full form. The easy way to say mine or yours is van: Die fiets is van mij, Is dit van u? You will also read de mijne and het mijne (mine), with the article of the noun: Jouw fiets is blauw, de mijne is groen.

It: hij, het or die for things

English says it for every thing. Dutch looks at the article: a de-word is hij (object hem), a het-word is het. To an English ear the hij sounds like he, but for most things it is the normal word in the Netherlands.

• ‘Ik heb hem zaterdag gekocht,’ zegt Mira. I bought it on Saturday, says Mira. (the bike; De fiets van 40 euro)
• Dan haalt Femke het lieveheersbeestje voorzichtig van de blauwe bel en plakt het op de groene. Then Femke carefully takes the ladybug off the blue bell and sticks it on the green one. (het lieveheersbeestje, so het; De fiets van 40 euro)
• ‘Mijn bus,’ zei Yara. ‘Over een kwartier is hij bij de kerk. Ik zit erin.’ My bus, said Yara. In a quarter of an hour it will be at the church. I am on it. (de bus; Storing)
• De koffer was zo zwaar dat ze hem bijna liet vallen. The suitcase was so heavy that she almost dropped it. (de koffer; Storing)
• Yara kende die naam: ze had hem al twintig keer gelezen. Yara knew that name: she had read it twenty times already. (de naam; Storing)

In speech die and dat often take the place of hij and het at the start of a sentence: Waar is de sleutel? Die ligt op tafel. Waar is het boek? Dat ligt op tafel. Plural things are ze or die: De schoenen zijn duur, maar ze zijn mooi.

Careful writing has one more rule: some de-words are feminine and take zij and haar, above all abstract words ending in -heid, -ing and -tie: De regering zegt dat zij meer huizen wil bouwen. In speech in the Netherlands, hij or die is normal for most things. The Woordenlijst (woordenlijst.org) shows whether a de-word is masculine or feminine, if you need to check.

After a preposition a thing becomes er plus the preposition, written as one word when the two stand together: not in hem or in het but erin, and so erop, ermee, ervoor. Ik zit erin in the bus sentence above is this rule. Rule 10 of the twelve grammar rules has more about er.

Reflexive pronouns: zich and the others

Some verbs need a pronoun that points back to the subject: zich omdraaien (to turn around), zich voelen (to feel), zich vergissen (to be wrong). The dictionary form has zich; with the other persons it changes:

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With stress, and after some prepositions, the reflexive gets -zelf: mezelf, jezelf, zichzelf. Nadia kijkt naar zichzelf (De pasfoto): she looks at herself, in a passport photo she cannot use.

Typical mistakes

• Not hun hebben but ze hebben, or zij hebben with stress. Hun as a subject is not standard Dutch.
• Not jou fiets but jouw fiets or je fiets; not Ik zie jouw but Ik zie jou.
• Not onze huis but ons huis; not ons straat but onze straat.
• Not u is but u bent.
• Not Woont je hier? but Woon je hier? With u the -t stays: Woont u hier?
• Not Het boek? Ik heb hem gelezen but Ik heb het gelezen: a het-word is het, and hij and hem are for de-words.
• The full forms everywhere: Wij gaan om zes uur naar huis, want wij zijn moe sounds as if someone else is staying. Say We gaan om zes uur naar huis, want we zijn moe, and keep the full forms for stress.
• Switching between je and u in one email or one conversation. Choose one and keep it, until the other person offers je.
• Writing me fiets: in speech me can mean my, but in writing it is mijn, or m’n in a quick message.

See it in a text

Five passages from the free A2 texts on this site, word for word. Each one shows a choice from this page.

• ‘In dat dorp stopt de bus niet bij het station,’ zei ze. ‘Hij stopt bij de kerk. Ziet u ergens een kerktoren?’ In that village the bus does not stop at the station, she said. It stops at the church. Can you see a church tower anywhere? Yara says u to a manager she has never met, and the bus is hij. (Storing)
• ‘Zie je wel, kind?’ zei de oude vrouw achter hen. ‘Door mij zit je in de goede bus.’ You see, child? said the old woman behind them. Thanks to me you are on the right bus. An old woman says je to a young one; hen after a preposition; mij with stress. (Storing)
• ‘Ik hoor u elke ochtend om zes uur. Boem. En dan rolt er iets.’ I hear you every morning at six. Boom. And then something rolls. Ana says u to the old woman upstairs, who answers with je: ‘Kom binnen,’ zegt mevrouw De Wit. ‘Wil je koffie?’ Come in, says Mrs. De Wit. Would you like coffee? (De buurvrouw van boven)
• ‘Beste Olena, bedankt voor uw brief. Kunt u donderdag om tien uur komen voor een gesprek?’ Dear Olena, thank you for your letter. Can you come for an interview on Thursday at ten? The bakery’s email says u. At the interview: ‘Dag Olena, ik ben Peter de Groot. Zeg maar Peter.’ Hello Olena, I am Peter de Groot. Just call me Peter. Then he says je: ‘Waarom wil je hier werken?’ vraagt Peter. Why do you want to work here? Peter asks. And the next morning: ‘Olena, wil je bij ons komen werken?’ zegt Peter. Olena, do you want to come and work with us? (Solliciteren: het eerste gesprek)
• ‘Ik heb een idee. Als je hier brood koopt, praat ik langzaam Nederlands met jou, en geen woord Spaans. En jij vertelt mij over Spanje, want dat mis ik.’ I have an idea. If you buy bread here, I will speak slow Dutch with you, and not a word of Spanish. And you tell me about Spain, because I miss it. The baker starts with je, then uses jou, jij and mij for the contrast between you and me. (Geen Engels, alstublieft)

Read next

To see the pronouns at work in one story, read Storing, a free A2 text with audio: Yara says u to a manager she has never met, an old woman says je to her, and the bus is always hij, except for one die in the last line. More stories at this level are on the page of free A2 texts.

For a whole book at A2, there is Dracula, the first volume of the Dutch Readers series: Bram Stoker’s novel in eight short chapters of easy Dutch, with a glossary after every chapter and free audio.