Because of You: Combining Pronouns with Wegen
In English, we say "because of me" or "for your sake." In formal German, the preposition wegen (because of) merges with pronouns to create a single word ending in -twegen.
While you might hear wegen mir or wegen dir in casual spoken German, the standard forms are:
| Pronoun | Pronominal Form | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| ich | meinetwegen | because of me / for my sake |
| du | deinetwegen | because of you / for your sake |
| er / es | seinetwegen | because of him/it / for his/its sake |
| sie (she/they) | ihretwegen | because of her/them / for her/their sake |
| wir | unsertwegen | because of us / for our sake |
| ihr | euretwegen | because of you (plural) / for your sakes |
| We did not change the roster because of you. | Wir haben den Dienstplan nicht deinetwegen geändert. |
| The oxygen is not becoming scarce because of us. | Der Sauerstoff wird nicht unsertwegen knapp. |
| Because of him, we adjusted the roster. | Seinetwegen haben wir den Dienstplan angepasst. |
| We are waiting for Anna and opening the airlock for her sake. | Wir warten auf Anna und öffnen ihretwegen die Luftschleuse. |
Meinetwegen: "For All I Care"
While meinetwegen literally means "because of me" or "for my sake," it is also a common idiom for yielding in a compromise. In these contexts, it means "fine by me," "I don't mind," or "for all I care."
| For all I care, we can reduce the gravity now. | Meinetwegen können wir die Schwerkraft jetzt reduzieren. |
| For all I care, we do not need oxygen from the bottle. | Meinetwegen brauchen wir keinen Sauerstoff aus der Flasche. |
Your questions are stored by us to improve Elon.io