du
German, pronoun
du is spelled D-U (2 letters) and appears 3,388 times per million words in written German, the 40th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Du is a German pronoun meaning “you (singular familiar), thou” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With a capital, Du is a different word: “alternative letter-case form of du (“you (singular)”), used…”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “der Angesprochene oder Angeschriebene, falls nicht die Höflichkeitsform Sie verwendet wird”.
What does du mean in English?
pronoun
- 1
you (singular familiar), thou
pronoun
- 1
alternative letter-case form of du (“you (singular)”), used especially for direct address in letters
noun
- 1
neuterthe thou, the you (singular)
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
pronoun: 1. der Angesprochene oder Angeschriebene, falls nicht die Höflichkeitsform Sie verwendet wird
noun: 1. (vertraute) direkte Anrede
abbreviation: 1. Dienstunfähigkeit
The definition in the German Wiktionary, in German.
Source: German Wiktionary, dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of du
- ich first-person nominative personal
- er masculine nominative personal
- sie feminine nominative personal
- es neuter nominative personal
- wir first-person nominative personal
- ihr error-unrecognized-form nominative personal
- Sie error-unrecognized-form nominative personal
- Ihr error-unrecognized-form nominative personal
- meiner first-person genitive personal
- mein first-person genitive personal
- deiner error-unrecognized-form genitive personal
- dein error-unrecognized-form genitive personal
- seiner genitive masculine personal
- sein genitive masculine personal
- ihrer feminine genitive personal
- unser first-person genitive personal
- euer error-unrecognized-form genitive personal
- Ihrer error-unrecognized-form genitive personal
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How common is du in German?
du appears 3,388 times per million words in written German.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).