German possessive determiners¶
Possessive determiners (Possessivartikel) are mein, dein, sein, ihr, unser, euer and Ihr. They decline like the indefinite article ein. The declension itself is fairly regular. The hard part is different. First, you have to choose the stem by the owner. Also, German has a few traps that English doesn't have.
How possessive determiners decline across cases¶
The table shows the full declension of mein (my). dein (your, informal singular), sein (his), ihr (her), unser (our), euer (your, informal plural), ihr (their) and Ihr (your, formal) take the same endings.
| Case | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominativ | mein | meine | mein | meine |
| Akkusativ | meinen | meine | mein | meine |
| Dativ | meinem | meiner | meinem | meinen |
| Genitiv | meines | meiner | meines | meiner |
Who's who: picking the stem by owner¶
The stem depends on the owner. The ending depends on the gender, number and case of the noun after the determiner.
| Owner | Stem | English |
|---|---|---|
| ich | mein | my |
| du | dein | your (informal, singular) |
| er / es | sein | his / its |
| sie (she) | ihr | her |
| wir | unser | our |
| ihr | euer | your (informal, plural) |
| sie (they) | ihr | their |
| Sie | Ihr | your (formal) |
Common mistakes¶
sein or ihr. English keeps "his" and "her" apart, and so does German. But ihr has other meanings too: "you" (plural), "to her" and, with a capital letter, the formal "your". So it's easy to use sein when the owner is she or they. If the owner is he, use sein: Peter sucht seinen Schlüssel. (his key) If the owner is she, use ihr: Maria sucht ihren Schlüssel. (her key)
euer → eure. When euer gets an ending, it drops the vowel from its stem: eure Fahrräder, not euere Fahrräder. This rule applies only to euer. The other possessive determiners keep their stem.
ihr or Ihr. In formal address, Ihr always has a capital letter, even in the middle of a sentence: Haben Sie Ihren Regenschirm dabei? In writing, only the capital letter separates it from ihr (her, their). In speech, they sound the same. The formal Sie nearby tells you which one it is.
Exercises¶
You can find more exercises on this topic in the Telegram bot @ImmerWiederholenBot. The bot saves your progress and reminds you when it's time to review.
See also¶
- German cases: what each case does and how the article declines.
- Personal and reflexive pronouns: mich or mir, sich, and when to use which.
- Adjective endings: mein kleiner Bruder, but der kleine Bruder.