A2 · Pronouns · about 4 minutes
Indefinite pronouns: jemand
jemand, niemand, etwas, nichts, alle
A small set of pronouns for unspecified people and things, and the endings some of them still carry.
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“New to me”: the explanation first, then practice. “Test myself”: 2 short questions – get at least two right and you go straight to the harder exercises.
Words you will need3
They appear in this topic’s examples and exercises and are new at this point on the learning path.
- alleall, everybody
- jemandsomebody
- einverstandenin agreement, agreed
Understand
Rememberalle sind, alles ist.
- Signal words
- jemand
- niemand
- etwas
- nichts
- alle
- alles
- jeder
- man
- irgend-
The form
The patterns at a glance
Each row first says when or what the pattern is used for, then gives an example in German.
negation
| somebody, nobody | jemand, niemand |
| accusative, dative | jemanden, jemandem |
| something, nothing | etwas, nichts |
| everybody, everything | alle, alles |
| each one, declined like dieser | jeder, jede, jedes |
| one, people in general | man |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is aboutThe word that calls for it
alle is plural and about people; alles is singular and about things as a whole.
Alle sind da. Alles ist bereit.Everybody is here. Everything is ready.
jemand and niemand take endings in the accusative and dative.
Ich habe niemanden gesehen.I did not see anybody.
jeder declines like dieser and is always singular.
Jeder kann mitmachen.Anybody can join in.
An adjective after etwas or nichts is capitalised and takes -es.
etwas Neues, nichts Gutessomething new, nothing good
Example sentences
Hat jemand angerufen?Did anybody call?
Niemand weiß es.Nobody knows.
Ich habe nichts gehört.I did not hear anything.
8 more example sentences
Alle waren einverstanden.Everybody agreed.
Jeder Tag ist anders.Every day is different.
Ist da jemand?Is anybody there?
Er hat niemandem etwas gesagt.He did not tell anybody anything.
Alles klar?All good?
Jede Woche das Gleiche.The same every week.
Irgendjemand muss es gewesen sein.It must have been somebody.
Möchtest du noch etwas?Would you like anything else?
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
One letter decides between people and things, and the verb gives it away: alle is plural and takes sind, alles is singular and takes ist. Because English has two clearly different words, nothing warns that a choice is being made — and the wrong one turns a room full of guests into an inventory.
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The full explanation
Read it all · about 1 min
German covers unspecified people with jemand and niemand, and unspecified things with etwas and nichts. Alle and alles cover everybody and everything, and jeder covers each one individually.
The pair that needs attention is alle against alles. Alle is a plural about people or countable things — Alle sind da. Alles is a singular about everything as one mass — Alles ist fertig. English uses "everybody" and "everything" and keeps them clearly apart; the German pair differs by one letter.
Jemand and niemand can take case endings — jemanden, jemandem — and in modern speech they are often left off. Both are correct; the ending is the more careful form and is what a written text uses.
A closer look
The irgend- family
German builds a vaguer version of almost any of these by prefixing irgend-: irgendjemand(somebody or other)irgendetwas(something or other)irgendwo(somewhere)irgendwann(sometime)irgendwie(somehow) The prefix adds the sense that it does not matter which.
It is extremely common in speech and gives a learner a lot of range for one syllable. Irgendwie in particular is the everyday word for "somehow" and for hedging in general: Das ist irgendwie komisch.
Exceptions and special cases2
Exception
When niemand or nichts is already in the sentence
then no further negation is added.
Ich habe niemanden gesehen.I did not see anybody.
Why? German does not stack negatives the way some dialects of English do.
Exception
When jemand is followed by an adjective
then it takes -es and a capital letter, like etwas.
jemand Neuessomebody new
Why? The adjective is nominalised in the same way.
Worth knowing2
Worth knowing
man is not a pronoun for a man
Man means "one" or "people in general" and has nothing to do with der Mann: Hier darf man nicht parken. It is spelled with one n, it is always singular, and it is how German most often avoids the passive.
Worth knowing
nichts against nicht
Nichts is a pronoun meaning "nothing" and nicht is the adverb that negates a sentence. Ich habe nichts gesagt is "I said nothing"; Ich habe nicht gesagt is an incomplete sentence waiting for what was not said.
The verbs on this page, in every form: sein · haben · können · sehen · anrufen