When do we use: me, m'n, je, z'n, 't, ze, d'r, we, ...?

These are unstressed forms of personal pronouns and possessive determiners. In spoken language, you use them even more often than the basic forms. There is a subtle difference between the two forms: it depends on which word of the sentence is the most important.

The basic forms

	personal pronoun		possessive determiner
	subject	object
	Ik ben Sophie!	De buurman haat mij...	...want dit is mijn nieuwe hobby.
1	ik	mij	mijn
2	jij	jou	jouw
	u	u	uw
3	hij	hem	zijn
	zij	haar	haar
	het	het	zijn
1	wij	ons	ons / onze
2	jullie	jullie	jullie
3	zij	hen / hun	hun

	possessive determiner
	...want dit is mijn nieuwe hobby.
1	mijn
2	jouw
	uw
3	zijn
	haar
	zijn
1	ons / onze
2	jullie
3	hun

You use these basic forms if the stress of the sentence is on these words, so when these words are the most important elements of the sentence.

This is the case by for example contrasts.

Unstressed forms

Some pronouns and determiners have an unstressed form. There are never used in formal contexts.

The most important word or not?

basic form

The most important word of the (part of the) sentence.

• These forms often have (but not always) an “ij”.

unstressed form

Not the most important word.
 

• These words have a “e” or a apostrophe. You pronounce these as an /ə/ (schwa).
• Examples:
  

  me = /mə/	we = /wə/
  't = /(ə)t/	z'n = /zən/

  exception: 'ie = /i/

It changes the meaning of the sentence:

“Weet je wat zij vertelde?”

“Zij” is the most important word.

“Weet je wat ze vertelde?”

“Ze” is not the most important word, so “vertelde” becomes the most important word.

Informal spoken language

Some forms do only exist in informal spoken language. This means that you often hear them, but hardly ever see them written. For example:

At the beginning of a sentence

If the sentence starts with a preposition followed by a personal pronoun, we use the basic form:

✘ Volgens me gaat het straks regenen.

✔ Volgens mij gaat het vandaag regenen.