Question word 'wer' (who, person)

What it is. wer means who. You use it to ask about a person - specifically the person who is the subject (the doer) of the sentence. It is in the nominative case.

Word order. wer opens the question and the verb comes directly after it:

• Wer kommt heute? - Who is coming today?
• Wer ist das? - Who is that?
• Wer spielt Fußball? - Who plays football?

Because wer itself is the subject, no extra subject is needed - the verb takes the er/sie/es-form (kommt, ist, spielt).

Other cases. wer changes form depending on its role: nominative wer (who), accusative wen (whom, as a direct object: Wen siehst du? - Whom do you see?), dative wem (to whom: Wem hilfst du? - Whom are you helping?). At A1 you mostly need wer, but it helps to recognize the others.

Common mistakes. Do not confuse wer (who) with wo (where) - they look similar but are completely different. Use the singular verb form, even if the answer turns out to be several people: Wer kommt? (not kommen).

'wer' (who) asks about a person (the subject).

Use 'wer' to ask about a person as the subject; the verb comes right after.

'wer' fragt nach einer Person (Subjekt, Nominativ).