Paradigms in any foreign language are typically learned by rote. This ultimately does the trick, but it can be rather dull, and it is not at all helpful in relating the forms you are learning to their function in context. Fortunately, one can often find cognate forms in related languages. To a speaker of English and/or German, the Old Norse pronouns are a breeze once you are aware of their Germanic analogues. Most forms are cognate but have developed separately; only English they, them, their are direct borrowings from Old Norse.
To learn pronominal declension, it may be useful to bring the pronouns together into a series of simple sentences. To this end, you will need to learn the present indicative forms of three verbs: one for each of the oblique cases. We'll also add in an impersonal verb for good measure. The strong verb classes are identified with Roman numerals, the weak with Arabic numerals. The differences between the classes are of limited relevance to the present exercise; simply study the forms of these individual verbs for now.
sjá V "see" (+acc.)
#
sg.
pl.
1
ek sé
vér sjám
2
þú sér
(þ)ér séð
3
hann sér
þeir sjá
hefna 1 "avenge" (+gen.)
#
sg.
pl.
1
ek hefni
vér hefnum
2
þú hefnir
(þ)ér hefnið
3
hann hefnir
þeir hefna
segja 3 "say" (to +dat.)
#
sg.
pl.
1
ek segi
vér segjum
2
þú segir
(þ)ér segið
3
hann segir
þeir segja
langa 2 "long for" (+acc. for til +gen.)
#
sg.
pl.
1
mik langar
oss langar
2
þik langar
yðr langar
3
hann langar
þá langar
Given these paradigms, and the knowledge that dual pronouns take plural verbs, you can now form simple sentences like the following:
Ek sé þik (“I see you”)
It séð hana (“You two see her”)
Þú hefnir hennar (“You avenge her”)
Þær hefna mín (“They [feminine] avenge me”)
Hon segir þeim (“She tells them”)
Þau segja okkr (“They [mixed gender] tell the two of us”)
Oss langar til hans (“We long for him”)
Ykkr langar til vár (“You two long for us”)
With just the personal pronouns and these four verbs, you are now able to read or form 423 different Old Norse sentences! With the above paradigms close at hand, head over to set 1 of the flashcards to practise doing just that.