A1 Grammar · Unit 3 · Topic 6 of 30

Possessive Articles

About 3 minutes · tables, common mistakes and practice with answers

Syllabus Vocabulary Grammar Exercises Progress Resources

In short

Words like "my," "your," and "his" change form based on the gender of the noun: mein Vater (my father) but meine Mutter (my mother).

Possessive articles

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Possessive articles take the same endings as ein. With masculine and neuter nouns there's no ending, with feminine and plural nouns you add -e. Watch out for ihr: it can mean her, their, or (with a capital I) your in the polite form.

हिंदी में समझें

Possessive articles की endings ein जैसी होती हैं। masculine और neuter में कोई ending नहीं, feminine और plural में -e। ihr का ध्यान रखें: इसका मतलब उसका (स्त्री), उनका, या बड़े I के साथ Ihr = आपका हो सकता है।

You use these to talk about family, home, and belongings. The possessive word depends on who owns it (ich → mein, du → dein, er → sein), and the ending depends on the noun (masculine, feminine, neuter, or plural).

Treat it like ein/eine. If the noun takes -e (feminine or plural), the possessive takes -e too: meine Mutter, meine Eltern. Formal you is always Ihr with a capital I.

	masculine	neuter	feminine	plural
mein	mein Vater	mein Handy	meine Mutter	meine Eltern
dein	dein Vater	dein Handy	deine Mutter	deine Eltern
sein	sein Vater	sein Handy	seine Mutter	seine Eltern
(her) ihr	ihr Vater	ihr Handy	ihre Mutter	ihre Eltern
(our) unser	unser Vater	unser Handy	unsere Mutter	unsere Eltern

Common Mistakes in Possessive Articles

Don't choose the ending by who's speaking. Everyone says "mein Vater" for their father, not "meine Vater" if you're male. And unser and euer lose an e: unsere, eure.

Memory trick

Treat mein like ein. Mein Vater, eine Mutter, meine Mutter.

Practice

Fill in the blank.

___ (my) Bruder ist Arzt.
___ (my) Schwester wohnt in Köln.
Wie heißt ___ (your, du) Mutter?

Show answers

Answers: Mein, Meine, deine.

Practise it: Possessive Articles Exercises (8 questions) →

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