Reduced and stressed Dutch pronouns ('t, ie, 'm, ze)

Most Dutch pronouns come in two versions: a full form that carries stress and a weak, reduced form for when the pronoun is unimportant. Heb jij het gezien? stresses you; Heb je 't gezien? (Did you see it?) just moves the sentence along. In everyday speech the reduced form is the normal one.

Every reduced pronoun keeps the same meaning as its full form; it is only pronounced (and sometimes written) shorter, with a mumbled e-sound. Some reductions are ordinary words you already know — je (from jij), ze (from zij), we (from wij) — and belong in normal writing. Others are marked with an apostrophe ('t, 'm, 'k) or a hyphen (heeft-ie) and stay in casual speech.

Subject pronouns and their reduced forms:

Object pronouns reduce the same way (these are the forms you meet in the subject and object pronoun table):

Reduce the pronoun when it is not the important word in the sentence — which is most of the time.

• In ordinary speech, whenever the pronoun is not stressed: Weet je 't al? (Do you know it yet?)
• The words je, ze, we only exist as weak forms. They cannot carry stress at all, so you simply use them wherever no emphasis is needed: We eten om zes uur. (We eat at six.)
• Object pronouns for things and people that are already known: Ik heb 'm gisteren teruggegeven. (I gave it back yesterday.) Where these unstressed pronouns sit in the sentence is covered in object pronoun placement.

Use the full form when the pronoun itself is the point — when you are emphasising it or setting one person against another.

• Contrast between people: Jij betaalt, niet ik. (You pay, not me.) Ik ga naar huis, maar zij blijft. (I'm going home, but she is staying.)
• Emphasis on who does or owns something: Dat is mijn jas, geef hem aan mij. (That's my coat, give it to me.)
• je, ze, we cannot be stressed, so for any of these meanings you must switch to jij, zij, wij: not ze deed het for emphasis, but Zij deed het. (She did it.)

The reduced ie (for hij) can never start a sentence. Say Hij komt morgen (He comes tomorrow), not Ie komt morgen; but after the verb it is fine: Komt-ie morgen? or Wanneer komt-ie? The other reduced forms marked with an apostrophe ('k, 't, 'm, d'r) belong to speech and casual messages. In formal writing — an exam, a letter, an official form — write the full words ik, het, hem, haar.