FormPossessivartikel (Stamm nach Besitzer) + Endung nach dem Besessenen
Meaning and usage
A possessive article shows who owns something. The stem names the owner: mein for me, dein for you, sein for him or it, ihr for her, unser for us, euer for you plural, ihr for them and Ihr for formal you. The ending then matches the thing owned, and it copies the endings of ein. So mein Bruder has no ending, meine Mutter adds -e, and meinen Onkel adds -en in the accusative.
Use the stem for the owner and the ending for the thing. Learners often match the ending to the owner instead, and say mein Mutter or meine Bruder. That is not German. The ending only follows the noun that comes after it.
Examples 6
Anna sucht ihren Schlüssel.
Anna is looking for her key.
Peter hilft seiner Schwester.
Peter is helping his sister.
Wir fahren mit unserem Auto.
We're going in our car.
Ich danke dir sehr für deine Hilfe.
I thank you very much for your help.
Warum antwortest du nicht auf meine Nachrichten?
Why don't you answer my messages?
Du musst deine Hände immer sauber halten.
You must always keep your hands clean.
Test yourself
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1 Sprachbausteine
Das ist Peter und das ist Schwester.
Show answer
Correct answer: seine
Peter is one male person, so the stem is sein. Schwester is feminine, so the ending is -e: seine Schwester.
- deine has the right ending but the stem dein points to the person spoken to, and the sentence is about Peter.
- sein has no ending, which fits a masculine or neuter noun, not the feminine Schwester.
- ihre has the right ending but the stem ihr points to a female owner, and Peter is male.
In this topic: Possessives
Example sentences from Tatoeba, used under CC BY 2.0 FR. See sources.