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pronoun

ihr

/ˈiːɾ/

you (plural informal) / her / their — a multifunctional pronoun and possessive depending on context

Definitions

  1. 1

    Second-person plural informal pronoun: 'you all' / 'you guys' — used to address two or more people you know well (the plural of 'du').

    “Kommt ihr morgen zur Party mit?”

    Are you all coming to the party tomorrow?

  2. 2

    Possessive pronoun meaning 'her' — indicating something belongs to a female person or a grammatically feminine noun.

    “Maria zeigt uns ihr neues Fahrrad im Hof.”

    Maria shows us her new bicycle in the courtyard.

  3. 3

    Possessive pronoun meaning 'their' — indicating something belongs to a group of people or things.

    “Die Kinder spielen in ihrem Garten jeden Nachmittag.”

    The children play in their garden every afternoon.

  4. 4

    Dative form of 'sie' (she): 'to her' / 'for her' — the indirect object referring to a female person.

    “Der Lehrer erklärt ihr die schwierige Aufgabe geduldig.”

    The teacher patiently explains the difficult task to her.

Word forms

Usage
As a possessive, 'ihr' inflects for gender and case like an indefinite article (e.g. ihr, ihre, ihrem, ihren, ihres). Capitalised 'Ihr/Ihre' is the formal polite possessive matching the formal 'Sie'.

Context is everything: 'ihr' as a subject pronoun ('you all') is always lowercase and takes a plural verb; 'ihr' as a possessive ('her'/'their') changes its ending to agree with the gender and case of the noun it modifies. When written with a capital 'I' — 'Ihr' — it becomes the formal possessive matching the polite 'Sie', so pay attention to capitalisation.