pronoun

du

you

Dieses Wort benutzt man, wenn man eine Person direkt anspricht, die man kennt oder die ungefähr im gleichen Alter ist.

Definition & meaning

du is the informal singular form of “you” in German. It is used when addressing one person directly in familiar, friendly, or intimate situations.

Examples:

Du bist nett. — You are nice.
Wie heißt du? — What is your name?
Ich kenne dich. — I know you.

Unlike English, German distinguishes between informal and formal forms of address. du is normally used with family members, friends, children, close colleagues, and people of similar age in informal settings.

Du can also be capitalized as Du in personal letters, emails, or other direct forms of address. This capitalization is optional in modern German but can express politeness or personal warmth.

Grammar & Word origin

du is a second-person singular personal pronoun:

Case	Form	Meaning
Nominative	du	you
Accusative	dich	you
Dative	dir	to/for you
Genitive	deiner	of you

The possessive form is dein , meaning “your” when referring to one informal person.

The verb form used with du is generally the second-person singular form, often ending in -st:

du kommst — you come
du machst — you do/make
du bist — you are

Historically, du developed from the same Indo-European pronoun as English “thou” and is related to forms such as Latin tu and French tu.

Synonyms & antonyms

There is no exact synonym for du, but the following forms are related alternatives:

Sie — the formal singular or plural “you.” It is used with strangers, in professional situations, or when showing social distance or respect. Unlike du, it takes the third-person plural verb form: Sie sind .
ihr — the informal plural “you,” used when addressing several familiar people. Du refers to one person, whereas ihr refers to more than one.
euch — the accusative or dative form of ihr .