Object Pronouns

When a pronoun is on the receiving end of the action — the him in "I see him," the us in "she helps us" — Dutch uses its object pronouns. The good news for English speakers is enormous: Dutch, unlike German, makes no distinction between the direct and the indirect object. There is one set of object forms, and the same hem serves for both "I see him" and "I give the book to him." The only real complication is the third-person plural, where a prescriptive hen/hun split lurks — and even that one, as we'll see, is a rule natives mostly ignore. This page covers the object pronouns themselves; for reflexives (zich) see Reflexive zich, and for replacing a prepositional object with er see Pronominal er.

The full table

Like the subject pronouns, the object pronouns come in stressed/unstressed pairs. The unstressed form is again the everyday default; the stressed form is for contrast and emphasis.

Note that ons (us) has no separate reduced form — it is short and unstressed-friendly already. The polite u (you, formal) is also an object form unchanged from its subject form; it lives on The Formal U. Everything else mirrors the subject system: a heavy form for emphasis, a light form for everything else.

One form for direct and indirect object

This is the headline fact, and it is a gift. German speakers spend months learning that ihm (to him, dative) differs from ihn (him, accusative). Dutch swept that distinction away centuries ago for everything except — partially, on paper — the third-person plural. So hem is hem whether he is the thing seen or the person given to:

Compare the last pair: Ik ken jou leans a little on whom I know, while Ik ken je is flat and neutral. Same word-meaning, different weight — exactly the stressed/unstressed logic from the subject pronouns.

Use subject forms for subjects only

A frequent English-speaker error is to let a subject pronoun leak into object position — saying hij (he) where hem (him) is needed, because English itself is inconsistent here ("Me and him went..."). Dutch is strict: a subject form can never stand as an object.

The unstressed object forms in speech

Just as ik becomes 'k, the object pronouns reduce hard in casual speech, and these reductions are worth recognising even though you may not spell them out:

• hem → 'm: Ik zie 'm morgen (I'll see him tomorrow).
• haar → 'r or d'r: Ik heb 'r gebeld / Ik heb d'r gebeld (I called her). The d'r spelling reflects an extra d-onset you hear in speech; both are informal.
• het → 't: Geef 't maar aan mij (Just give it to me).
• hen/hun → ze: Ik heb ze gisteren gezien (I saw them yesterday).

These reduced forms are written with an apostrophe ('m, 'r, 't) and the d'r variant keeps its internal apostrophe too. In neutral or formal writing you restore the full hem, haar, het.

The hen/hun knot — the honest version

Now the famous trouble spot. For them, the prescriptive grammar books give you two stressed forms with a job-sharing rule:

• hen — for the direct object and after any preposition: Ik zie hen (I see them), met hen (with them), voor hen (for them).
• hun — for the indirect object without a preposition: Ik geef hun het boek (I give them the book).

Here is the part the textbooks tend to hide: this rule is artificial. It was invented in the 17th century by the grammarian Christiaen van Heule, who simply decreed the split to mirror Latin case — Dutch never actually distinguished hen and hun in natural speech. As a result, native speakers have never reliably followed it. In everyday Dutch, hen and hun are used more or less interchangeably as objects, and most people could not tell you the rule if asked.

So what should you actually do? The safe, native-sounding strategy is simple:

1. Use ze whenever you can. The unstressed ze covers them for both direct and indirect object and sidesteps the whole question: Ik zie ze, Ik geef ze het boek. This is what speakers do most of the time anyway.
2. When you need a stressed form, use hen after prepositions (met hen, voor hen) — that is the one place where hen is universally accepted and sounds correct to everyone.
3. Learn the full hen/hun split only for exams and formal writing, where editors and graders still enforce it.

Because the hen/hun question is genuinely tangled and sociolinguistically loaded, it gets a dedicated deep-dive: see Hen vs Hun for the full picture, the exam rule, and exactly where the stigma falls.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• Dutch object pronouns are me/mij, je/jou, 'm/hem, 'r/haar, ons, je/jullie, ze/hen-hun — each with an unstressed (default) and stressed (emphatic) form.
• One form covers both direct and indirect object — there is no German-style accusative/dative split. Ik zie hem and Ik geef het hem use the same hem.
• Never use a subject form as an object (hij for him is wrong).
• The hen/hun rule is a 17th-century invention that natives ignore: lean on ze for everything, use hen after prepositions, and never use hun as a subject.
• Reduced object forms ('m, 'r, d'r, 't) are normal in speech and informal writing; restore the full forms in formal text.