Possessive pronouns
die Possessivpronomen
German possessives show who something belongs to and agree with the thing owned: mein Bruder, seine Frau.
“Sein Haus” — but the owner might be a woman. English already tells “his” from “her” by the owner, and German does too. What English never does is change the word for the thing owned: German adds gender and number endings.
Who owns it — the word tells you
ShortcutThe possessive word follows the owner for its stem, and the thing owned for its ending: mein Bruder but meine Schwester.
You already do half of this in English: “his car” or “her car” depends on the owner. German has to make the same choice: sein if the owner is male, ihr if the owner is female or if there are several owners. The extra step, which English does not have, is the ending.
| Who | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| ich · I | mein | mein Bruder — my brother |
| du · you | dein | dein Buch — your book |
| er · he | sein | sein Auto — his car |
| sie · she | ihr | ihr Auto — her car |
| es · it | sein | sein Name — its name |
| Who | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| wir · we | unser | unser Haus — our house |
| ihr · you (plural) | euer | euer Lehrer — your teacher |
| sie · they | ihr | ihre Kinder — their children |
| Sie · you (formal) | Ihr | Ihr Ticket — your ticket |
The formal Ihr is written with a capital letter even in the middle of a sentence — that is the only thing that tells it apart from “their”.
What decides the stem is the owner’s gender, not the gender of the thing owned. Er liebt seine Frau. — the owner is male (er), so sein; the -e comes from Frau being feminine.
Declension — exactly what ein does
Good news: you are not learning a new pattern. mein · dein · sein · ihr all decline like ein. They take the ending ein takes, and where ein has no ending, they have none.
| masculine · der | feminine · die | neuter · das | plural · die | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominativ (subject) | mein Vater | meine Mutter | mein Kind | meine Eltern |
| Akkusativ (object) | meinen Vater | meine Mutter | mein Kind | meine Eltern |
| Dativ | meinem Vater | meiner Mutter | meinem Kind | meinen Elternn |
Do not memorise the table, memorise one line: in the Akkusativ only the masculine changes → meinen. Feminine, neuter and plural stay the same as in the Nominativ. This is exactly where most A1 mistakes happen.
- unser and euer lose the inner e when an ending is added: euer → eure Mutter · euren Vater.
- In the plural Dativ, the possessive takes -en and the noun takes -n: mit meinen Kindern.
- With a possessive there is no article: mein Vater is right, der mein Vater is wrong.
sein · ihr — three questions that end the confusion
When you build a sentence, ask in this order: 1) Who is the owner? 2) Male or female? 3) What gender and case is the thing owned? The first two questions choose the word, the third chooses the ending.
| Sentence | Owner | Word | Where the ending comes from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Er sucht seine Tasche. | er (male) | sein | die Tasche → Akk. feminine → -e |
| Sie sucht ihren Mantel. | sie (female) | ihr | der Mantel → Akk. masculine → -en |
| Sie besuchen ihre Eltern. | sie (they) | ihr | plural → -e |
| Wir helfen unserem Nachbarn. | wir | unser | helfen takes Dativ → masculine Dat. -em |
Das ist Ali. Seine Schwester wohnt in Izmir.
The owner is Ali (male) → sein; Schwester is feminine → -e
Das ist Ayşe. Seine Schwester wohnt in Izmir.
the owner is a woman, so it should have been ihre
What you just learned
Sie sucht ___ Mantel. (a woman looking for her coat)
Show the answer
ihren. The owner is female, so ihr; the coat is masculine in the Akkusativ, so it takes -en.
The sentence “Das ist Ali. Ihre Frau heißt Ayşe.” is correct.
Show the answer
False. The owner is male (Ali), so it has to be seine. The ending comes from the feminine noun: seine Frau.
Ich sehe ___ Mutter.
Show the answer
meine. In the Akkusativ only the masculine changes; the feminine stays the same as in the Nominativ.
Three traps
Looking at the gender of the thing, not the owner
The most common mistake. If you mean his own wife and say Er liebt ihre Frau., the sentence means “he loves somebody else’s wife”. The owner is er, so the right form is seine Frau. The owner picks the word, the thing owned picks the ending.
Adding -en to every gender in the Akkusativ
Wrong: Ich sehe meinen Mutter. In the Akkusativ only the masculine changes. The right form is meine Mutter — the feminine Akkusativ is the same as the Nominativ.
The e that drops out of euer
euere Mutter · eueren Vater are in the dictionary but rare and old-fashioned. When an ending arrives, the inner e almost always drops: eure Mutter · euren Vater. With unser the drop is optional: unsere is the common form.
Know this before the test
The core of the topic in three lines, then the mistakes people make most often.
- The owner picks the word, the noun picks the ending
Two separate questions: WHO is the owner (mein/dein/sein/ihr…) and what gender/case is the thing owned (the ending). Mix them up and you get the sein/ihr mistake.
seine Frau · ihr Mann
- They decline like ein
Possessives belong to the ein-family: bare in the masculine/neuter Nominativ (mein Buch), -e for feminine/plural (meine Mutter), -en for the masculine Akkusativ (meinen Schlüssel).
Ich suche meinen Schlüssel.
- The e of euer drops out
With an ending, euer → eure · euren: eure Mutter (“euere” is rare and old-fashioned).
eure Mutter
- Formal possessive: Ihr, always capitalised
Ihr Ticket, bitte. — the possessive of the polite Sie. A lowercase ihr means “her” or “their”.
Ihr Ticket, bitte.
Das ist Ali. Ihre Frau heißt Ayşe.
Seine Frau heißt Ayşe.
The owner is male: sein. The ending comes from the feminine noun: seine.
Sie sucht ihr Mantel.
Sie sucht ihren Mantel.
der Mantel is masculine and the object: -en.
euer Mutter
eure Mutter
With a feminine noun euer takes an ending and loses its inner e: eure.
ihr Ticket, bitte (formal address, lowercase i)
Ihr Ticket, bitte.
The polite possessive is capitalised everywhere.
Test yourself
Tap an answer — we will look at why together.
Das ist Ali. Frau heißt Ayşe.
Sie sucht Mantel. (der Mantel)
She is looking for her coat.
Ich sehe Mutter.
I see my mother.
Wir fahren mit Kindern.
We are going with our children.
Which one is spelled correctly?
“Your ticket, please” (formal) →
Practice done — –
To finish the topic, take the full test: score 60% and it is marked as done on your level path.
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Possessives pocket card
This whole page — tables, traps, examples — as one PDF. Download it, print it, run through it before the exam.
Related topics
der · die · das
read the ending, not the word
Stop memorising der/die/das one word at a time; read the ending instead.
Akkusativ & Dativ
the full article table
Accusative vs dative: what actually changes, and what never moves at all.
Noun plurals
die Bücher, die Autos
The German plural is the form a noun takes to name more than one thing: die Bücher, die Autos.