Possessive Pronouns (Possessivpronomen) in German

In this lesson you learn how to express possession with Possessivpronomen and how to decline them correctly for gender, number and case.

1Overview: Possessivartikel vs. Possessivpronomen

Possessive forms show who owns something. There are two functions:

• Possessivartikel: before a noun
  • Das ist mein Buch. (That is my book.)
• independent Possessivpronomen: without a noun
  • Das ist meins. (That is mine.)

You will see both types here, with focus on forms needed at A2 level.

2Base forms by person

These stems are used for all cases and genders:

Example: mein- + ending → mein, meine, meinem, etc.

3Possessivartikel in the nominative

They behave like ein: no -e in masculine/neuter singular.

More persons (nominative, singular):

• dein Vater, deine Mutter, dein Kind, deine Freunde
• sein Bruder, ihr Zimmer, unser Lehrer, euer Haus

4Declension of „mein-“ (article function)

Remember: in Dativ Plural the noun gets -n: meinen Tassen.

5Independent Possessivpronomen

Here there is no noun after the pronoun. Nominative forms:

Examples:

• Ist das dein Buch? – Nein, das ist meins. (Is that your book? – No, that is mine.)
• Ist das eure Wohnung? – Ja, das ist unsere. (Is that your flat? – Yes, that is ours.)
• Sind das ihre Kinder? – Ja, das sind ihre. (Are these her/their children? – Yes, they are hers/theirs.)

Colloquial German often uses meins, deins, seins, ihrs, unsers, euers; in written German, forms like meines, deines … are also common.

6Typical mistakes and tips

• Do not confuse ihr (possessive) with sie (personal pronoun):
  • Sie liebt ihr Kind. (= the child belongs to her)
• Watch the gender:
  • mein Vater, but meine Mutter.
• After many prepositions you need Dativ:
  • mit meinem Bruder, von deiner Schwester.

Practice by making a chain and changing the person: mein Hund → dein Hund → sein Hund → unser Hund.