what is it?
Indefinite pronouns refer to unspecified people or things without naming them. German has a small set of core indefinite pronouns that cover the most common cases: man (one / people in general), jemand (someone), niemand (nobody), etwas (something), nichts (nothing), and alles / alle (everything / everyone). They replace full noun phrases and, in the case of man, they also carry grammatical case when used as the object of a verb.
when to use it
man — use for general statements about what people do, can do, or must do. It corresponds to English «one», «you» (general), or «people» in sentences like «You can't smoke here» or «People say that…». It is always the grammatical subject.
jemand / niemand — use when referring to an unspecified person (or no person at all). They decline for accusative and dative: jemanden / jemandem and niemanden / niemandem.
etwas / nichts — use for unspecified things. etwas is the positive form (something); nichts is the negative form (nothing). Neither declines.
alles / alle — alles means «everything» (things); alle means «everyone» or «all (people)».
einen / einem — the accusative and dative forms of man. Use einen when man is the direct object and einem when it is the indirect object.
formation
man always takes a third-person singular verb — the same ending as er / sie / es.
| pronoun | example verb (dürfen) | meaning |
|---|---|---|
| man | man darf | one may / people may |
| man | man kann | one can / people can |
| man | man muss | one must / people must |
| man | man sagt | people say |
The case forms of man and the declension of jemand / niemand are shown below.
| case | man | jemand | niemand |
|---|---|---|---|
| nominative | man | jemand | niemand |
| accusative | einen | jemanden | niemanden |
| dative | einem | jemandem | niemandem |
etwas, nichts, alles, and alle do not change their form across cases at A2 level.
examples in context
common pitfalls
Plural verb with man. man is grammatically singular and always takes a third-person singular verb. Writing *man dürfen is wrong. The correct form is man darf.
Using du or Sie for general statements. English speakers often translate «you can't smoke here» word-for-word as *Du darfst hier nicht rauchen when the intended meaning is general (applying to everyone, not a specific person). Use man darf hier nicht rauchen for impersonal, general rules.
Double negation with nichts or niemand. nichts and niemand are already negative. Adding nicht or kein on top of them produces an ungrammatical double negation: *Ich habe nichts nicht gehört. The correct sentence is simply Ich habe nichts gehört.