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### Asking about and referring to people

When you ask about or refer to inanimate things, you use **wo-** and **da-** compounds. However, when you are talking about **people**, you cannot use these compounds. Instead, you keep the preposition separate and pair it with standard question words or personal pronouns.

The preposition determines the grammatical case. For prepositions that take the accusative case (like **auf** or **in** when action is directed at someone), the question word "who" becomes **wen**. When answering, simply use the preposition followed by an accusative personal pronoun (like **ihn** or **sie**):

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### Dative prepositions: *mit* and *von*

Many verbs describing relationship dynamics require prepositions that always trigger the dative case, such as **mit** (with) and **von** (from).

When using these prepositions to ask about people, the question word changes to its dative form, **wem**. Similarly, when referring back to someone, the personal pronouns switch to their dative forms, such as **ihm** (him) or **ihr** (her):

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Prepositional pronouns for people (auf wen?, mit ihm)

adjective

adverb

auxiliary verb

conjunction

determiner

interjection

noun

numeral

particle

preposition

pronoun

sentence

verb

Definite articles and gender (der, die, das)

Indefinite articles (ein, eine)

Regular verbs and statement word order (ich -e, er -t)

The second person (du -st, Sie -en)

Yes/No questions

The verb 'to have' (habe, hast, hat)

Plural pronouns and regular verbs (wir, ihr, sie)

Plural 'to be' and 'to have' (sind, haben)

Plural nouns and the plural article (die)

Sentence negation (nicht)

Noun negation (kein, keine)

Question words (wer, was, wo, wie)

Numbers 0 to 12 (null, eins, zwei)

The accusative case (den, die, das)

Indefinite accusative articles (einen, keinen)

Direct object pronouns (mich, dich, ihn)

There is / there are (es gibt)

Vowel changes: e to i/ie (er spricht, sie liest)

Vowel changes: a to ä (er fährt)

Weather and conditions (es regnet)

First- and second-person possessives in the nominative (mein, dein, Ihr)

First- and second-person possessives in the accusative (meinen, deinen, Ihren)

Third-person and plural possessives (sein, ihr, unser, euer)

Possession with names (Annas Auto)

Demonstrative pronouns (dieser, diese, dieses)

Expressing preference (gern, lieber)

Asking about direction and origin (woher, wohin)

Expressing ability (können)

Polite requests (möchten)

Expressing intention (wollen)

Modal verbs of obligation and permission (müssen, dürfen)

Separable prefix verbs

Adverbs of frequency (immer, oft, manchmal, nie)

The Dative case and definite articles (dem, der, den)

Dative indefinite and negative articles (einem, einer, keinem)

Dative personal pronouns (mir, dir, ihm, ihr...)

Dative verbs (helfen, danken, gefallen, schmecken)

Dative prepositions (aus, bei, mit, nach...)

Accusative prepositions (für, ohne, gegen)

Two-way prepositions for location (in, an, auf...)

Informal singular imperative (mach, komm)

Plural and formal imperative (macht, machen Sie)

Coordinating conjunctions (und, oder, aber, denn)

Simple past of sein and haben (war, hatte)

The perfect tense: regular verbs (gemacht, gespielt)

Past tense: irregular verbs (ge-...-en)

The perfect tense: mixed verbs (gebracht, gekannt)

The perfect tense with sein (ist gegangen)

The perfect tense: separable verbs (eingekauft)

The perfect tense: inseparable and -ieren verbs (besucht, studiert)

Informal singular commands (mach, lern)

Numbers 13 to 20 (dreizehn to zwanzig)

Counting by tens to 100 (dreißig, vierzig)

Telling time (Uhr, halb, Viertel, vor, nach)

Numbers 21 to 99 (einundzwanzig, zweiunddreißig)

Greetings and farewells

Thank you, sorry and good wishes

Everyday replies

Numbers 100 to 1,000,000 (hundert, tausend...)

Becoming and getting (werden)

The impersonal pronoun (man)

Indefinite pronouns (jemand, niemand...)

Time sequence prepositions (vor, nach, bei)

Time span prepositions (von... bis, seit, für)

Adverbs of sequence (zuerst, dann, danach)

Two-way prepositions for direction (in, auf, an...)

Directional adverbs (hin, her)

Placement verbs (setzen, stellen, legen)

Months of the year (Januar, Februar)

The four seasons (Frühling, Sommer)

Time prepositions and indefinite pronouns (an, in, um)

Ordinal numbers 1st to 19th (am ersten)

Ordinals 20th and beyond (-ste, -sten)

Placement vs. location verbs (stellen vs. stehen)

Accusative reflexive pronouns (mich, dich, sich)

Accusative reflexive verbs (sich freuen)

Dative reflexive pronouns (mir, dir, sich)

Dative reflexive verbs (sich etwas merken)

Ordinal numbers 11th to 19th (-te)

Temporal prepositions (an, in, um)

Double objects with nouns

Double objects with pronouns

The modal verb for advice (sollen)

Simple past of modal verbs (musste, wollte...)

Simple past of common irregulars (wurde, wusste, es gab)

Adverbial connectors of consequence (deshalb, darum...)

Subordinate clauses for statements (dass)

Question	Answer
whom (accusative)	wen
Who are you waiting for?	Auf wen wartest du?
I am waiting for him.	Ich warte auf ihn.
to fall in love	sich verlieben
the single (person)	der Single
Who is the single falling in love with?	In wen verliebt sich der Single?
He is falling in love with her.	Er verliebt sich in sie.
the couple	das Paar
romantic	romantisch
the relationship	die Beziehung
The couple has a romantic relationship.	Das Paar hat eine romantische Beziehung.
to marry	heiraten
They are a couple, but they are not marrying today.	Sie sind ein Paar, aber sie heiraten heute nicht.
to argue	streiten
Who are you arguing with?	Mit wem streitest du?
I am arguing with him.	Ich streite mit ihm.
the argument, fight	der Streit
The argument is not romantic.	Der Streit ist nicht romantisch.
to break up, to separate	sich trennen
Who is she breaking up with?	Von wem trennt sie sich?
She is breaking up with him after the argument.	Sie trennt sich nach dem Streit von ihm.
The single is sad today.	Der Single ist heute traurig.
Are you looking for a new relationship?	Suchst du eine neue Beziehung?
Who do you want to marry?	Wen willst du heiraten?

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