jemand, niemand, etwas, nichts, alles

These are the everyday words for talking about unspecified people and things: jemand (someone), niemand (no one), etwas (something), nichts (nothing), alles (everything), and jeder (everyone). Most of them are easy. But two features catch English speakers off guard: the optional case endings on jemand and niemand, and the etwas Gutes pattern, where an adjective after one of these pronouns turns into a capitalized noun with an -es ending. Master that pattern and you will sound noticeably more native.

jemand and niemand: someone / no one

Jemand means "someone / somebody" and niemand means "no one / nobody." They always refer to people, and they are singular: the verb that follows is in the third-person singular.

The optional -en / -em endings

In careful or written German, jemand and niemand take case endings: -en in the accusative and -em in the dative. So you would write jemanden as a direct object and jemandem after a dative preposition.

Here is the honest, useful truth: in spoken German these endings are frequently dropped, and "Ich habe jemand getroffen" is extremely common and perfectly understood (informal). In writing, and on a language exam, you are expected to add them: jemanden, jemandem. So learn the full forms, use them in anything written, and don't be surprised when you hear native speakers leave them off in casual speech. There is no deep logic to which ending appears — it is just the regular accusative -en and dative -em you already know from adjectives, attached to a word that happens to tolerate dropping them in conversation.

etwas, nichts, alles: invariable

Etwas (something), nichts (nothing), and alles (everything) refer to things rather than people. Unlike jemand, they never change form — no case endings at all, in any register.

Note that etwas in casual speech often shrinks to was: "Möchtest du noch was trinken?" is the relaxed, everyday version (informal). They mean the same thing.

The etwas Gutes pattern — the part that really matters

This is the feature that English gives you no model for, so it is worth slowing down. When you describe one of these "thing" pronouns with an adjective, German does not leave the adjective bare the way English does ("something good"). Instead, the adjective becomes a nominalized adjective: it is capitalized like a noun and takes the -es ending.

So "something good" is etwas Gutes, "nothing new" is nichts Neues, "everything good/the best" is alles Gute.

Why -es, and why capitalized

The capital letter follows the general German rule that anything functioning as a noun is capitalized — and here the adjective is doing the job of a noun (there is no actual noun present for it to lean on). The -es ending is the strong neuter ending, because these abstract "somethings" are treated as neuter and there is no article in front to carry the case marking, so the adjective itself must show it (strong declension).

The one exception: alles takes -e

After alles, the nominalized adjective takes -e, not -es — because alles itself already carries the strong neuter -s ending, so the following adjective declines weak. This is why the famous birthday wish is "Alles Gute!" and not "Alles Gutes."

jeder: everyone, every single person

Jeder means "everyone / each person," and as a standalone pronoun it declines like a der-word (jeder, jeden, jedem). It is grammatically singular — the verb stays singular even though the meaning covers many people.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• jemand / niemand = someone / no one; they refer to people, are singular, and take -en (accusative) and -em (dative) in writing — endings that are often dropped in casual speech.
• etwas / nichts / alles = something / nothing / everything; they never change form.
• After etwas, nichts, viel, wenig
  • adjective, the adjective becomes a capitalized noun ending in -es: etwas Gutes, nichts Neues, viel Interessantes.
• After alles, the adjective takes -e instead: alles Gute, because alles already carries the strong -s.
• jeder = everyone; declines like a der-word and stays grammatically singular.