Possessive pronouns in German are pronouns that indicate possession or belonging. They usually come before a noun, for example mein Kind (my child). These types of pronouns vary depending on the person, for example mein (my), dein (your), sein (his), unser (our), and so on.
Possessive pronouns are conjugated by cases, numbers and the grammatical type of the noun to which they refer.
Note the noun’s article
The first thing you should pay attention to is the article of the noun you are referring to. It can be masculine – der, feminine – die, or neuter – das. Depending on this, the endings of the pronouns will change. Look at these examples:
| German | English |
|---|---|
| meine Mutter | my mother |
| Das ist meine Mutter. | This is my mother. |
| mein Vater | my father |
| Das ist mein Vater. | This is my father. |
| mein Bruder | my brother |
| Mein Bruder ist 16 Jahre alt. | My brother is 16 years old. |
| meine Katze | my cat |
| Meine Katze ist schwarz. | My cat is black. |
| mein Kind | my child |
| Mein Kind ist sehr höflich. | My child is very polite. |
Determine the case: nominative, genitive, dative or accusative?
The next step is conjugation by cases. If you don’t yet know what cases are, be sure to take a look at our article on cases in German. And if you’ve already mastered the declension of articles, pronouns won’t be a problem for you. The conjugation of a possessive pronoun by cases looks exactly the same as the conjugation of an indefinite article!
Take a look at the table below:
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nominativ | |||
| mein Vater | meine Katze | mein Haus | meine Eltern |
| Genitiv | |||
| meines Vaters | meiner Katze | meines Hauses | meiner Eltern |
| Dativ | |||
| meinem Vater | meiner Katze | meinem Haus | meinen Eltern |
| Akkusativ | |||
| meinen Vater | meine Katze | mein Haus | meine Eltern |
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nominativ | |||
| dein Mann | deine Frau | dein Kind | meine Kinder |
| Genitiv | |||
| deines Mannes | deiner Frau | deines Kindes | deiner Kindern |
| Dativ | |||
| deinem Mann | deiner Frau | deinem Kind | deinen Kinder |
| Akkusativ | |||
| deinen Mann | deine Frau | dein Kind | deine Kinder |
In the table we show every possible variation of the pronouns mein and dein. The good news is that every other possessive pronoun is conjugated in the same way! Knowing this table will make your use of pronouns much easier.
But is it the best form of learning?
At Taalhammer, we have written many times about the importance of learning in whole sentences. Why is it so effective? Simply put, this is how our brain learns. It usually does not store individual words, but holds combinations of words (sometimes even whole sentences) as a unit. An example would be “I don’t know” – every time you say it, you pull it out of your memory as a whole.
This is exactly how you assimilated your native language as a child. You just listened to your parents say things, and no one explained any rules to you. Gradually you just figured out what was correct and what was not. In this way you developed intuition without knowing the grammar rules. You can read more about this in our article on why learning with sentences is the best way to learn a language.
