German

Pronoun

Ihr

1. (archaic) you (polite; both singular and plural).

Inflection

¹Often capitalized, especially in letters

Usage notes

In modern German, Sie (always capitalised) is used instead for politeness, while ihr is considered informal second-person plural only.

Determiner

Ihr

1. your (formally or politely addressing one or more persons)

   • Wo ist Ihr Wagen, Frau Wagner?‎

     Where is your car, Mrs. Wagner?

Declension

Nominatives of the possessive pronouns:

See also

• dein ‎(“your”) (addressing informally friends, relatives etc.)

German

Pronoun

ihr pl

1. you (plural, familiar)

Inflection

¹Often capitalized, especially in letters

In older language the genitive is also written ewer and the accusative and dative sometimes ewch.

Usage notes

• This form is the plural of du, which is used chiefly towards people with whom one is privately acquainted (see there). One uses ihr towards a group of people if one would address every individual in that group with du. However, the plural ihr is somewhat less familiar than the singular du, meaning that it can sometimes be used in semi-formal situations where du towards an individual would not be appropriate. Learners should still, in any case of doubt, use Sie in order to be on the safe side.
• The form Ihr (capitalized in writing) was formerly the polite second-person form for both singular and plural (compare French vous and Early Modern English you) and was used instead of contemporary Sie. Such usage still survives dialectally in some areas, and is encountered in historical contexts (e.g. fiction taking place in the distant past), but is otherwise rarely heard in standard German.
• As with all personal pronouns, the genitive case is very rare. It is used only in literary and formal style with verbs such as entbehren and gedenken that take a genitive object, or certain adjectives that take a genitive object.
• In the late 18th century and in the first half of the 19th century, the genitive was also eurer instead of euer, e.g. ich erinnere mich eurer instead of ich erinnere mich euer.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

Etymology 2

From Old High German iru, iro

Pronoun

ihr

1. dative of sie

   Hast du ihr das Buch gegeben?‎

   Did you give her the book?

Etymology 3

From Old High German ira

Determiner

ihr

1. her (possessive)
2. its (when the owning object/article/thing/animal etc., referred to, is feminine)

Inflection

Etymology 4

From Old High German iro.

Determiner

ihr

1. their

Inflection

References

1. ↑ Karl Ferdinand Becker: Schulgrammatik der deutschen Sprache. Vierte neubearbeitete Ausgabe. Frankfurt am Main, 1839, p. 143.
2. ↑ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, in Götz von Berlichingen: „Götz. Ich erinnere mich eurer nicht.“
3. ↑ Shakspeare, translated by Aug. Wilh. v. Schlegel and Ludwig Tieck, in Maaß für Maaß: „Herzog. Ich erinnere mich eurer, Herr, an dem Ton eurer Stimme[.]“
4. ↑ Konrad Duden: Vollständiges Orthographisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache. Sechste, verbesserte und vermehrte Auflage. Leipzig and Wien, 1900, p. 102: „euer (Genitiv von ihr); euer (nicht: eurer) sind drei; ich erinnere mich euer (nicht: eurer)“
5. ↑ Wahrig: Die deutsche Rechtschreibung. Band 1: A–K. Bertelsmann Lexikon Institut, 2007, p. 529: „ich gedenke euer, ich erinnere mich euer (falsch: eurer)“