Indefinite pronouns — man, jemand, niemand, etwas, nichts

Everyday language leans on these a lot. Someone, nobody, something, nothing, one — the pronouns you reach for when you don't want to name a specific person or thing.

man — the one-size-fits-all "you / one"

Man is the most useful indefinite. English translations shift with context: "you," "one," "people," "they." German just uses man.

Two things to remember:

1. Man is the SUBJECT form only. It's always Nominativ.
2. Man takes a singular verb (like er/sie/es): man geht, man kommt, man hat.

For the object forms, you use einen (Akk) and einem (Dat):

Don't confuse man with Mann (one n, pronoun; two ns, noun — "man").

jemand / niemand — someone / no one

These are pronouns for unknown or denied people. They can either stay uninflected or decline (both options are considered correct in modern German, with the uninflected form winning in speech).

etwas / nichts — something / nothing

These don't inflect. Ever.

alles — everything

Also doesn't inflect. But if it's followed by an adjective, that adjective takes a neuter ending because alles is neuter.

einige, viele, wenige, alle — plural quantifiers

These decline like regular adjectives in plural. You'll use them constantly for "some," "many," "few," "all."

ein paar — "a few"

A useful fixed phrase. Ein paar means "a few" (small lowercase p). Written ein Paar means "a pair." Don't mix them.

Common mistakes, named

1. Making man plural. Man sind nett. ❌ → Man ist nett. ✓ Man always takes singular verb.

2. Using man for an object. Das stört man. ❌ → Das stört einen. ✓ For Akk/Dat of man, use einen/einem.

3. Trying to decline etwas / nichts. etwasen ❌ — these never decline.

4. Conflating jemand with man. Jemand is "a specific-but-unknown someone." Man is "people in general / you generically." They're not interchangeable.

Mini check

Where this leads

Next we move into adjective territory again, this time with adjectives built from verbs. Spielend and gespielt can describe nouns — and when they do, they decline like any other adjective.

Next up: Partizip als Adjektiv.

Test yourself