German possessives: mein, meine and meinen

Why it matters

You can distinguish your belongings from someone else’s.

Build the pattern

How it works

A possessive is a word such as “my” or “your” before a noun. For one person, start with ich → mein, du → dein, er → sein and sie → ihr. Here du means one person you address informally.

The owner chooses the beginning of the word. If Noah uses er, his book is sein Buch. If Mila uses sie, her book is ihr Buch. The book stays neuter in both phrases.

The noun then chooses the ending. Compare sein Buch with seine Tasche: both belong to him. The feminine noun Tasche adds -e; it does not turn “his” into “her”. The same pattern gives ihr Buch and ihre Tasche for her belongings.

With an owner referred to as es, use sein too. In these exercises, the owner and intended meaning are always stated. Do not guess them from the gender of the belonging.

Common mistakes

• Das ist sein Tasche. → Das ist seine Tasche.

  Keep sein- for “his”, then add -e because Tasche is feminine.

Limits & exceptions

• These forms stand before a noun. Standalone forms meaning “mine” or “yours” come later.

Why it matters

You can reuse the case patterns you already know.

Build the pattern

How it works

In a nominative phrase, use mein Stift (masculine), meine Tasche (feminine), mein Buch (neuter) and meine Bücher (plural). These mean “my pen”, “my bag”, “my book” and “my books”.

After Das ist, identify one thing with the nominative: Das ist mein Stift. With several things, use Das sind meine Bücher.

After haben, the thing someone has is an accusative object. The masculine form changes to meinen Stift: Ich habe meinen Stift. Feminine meine Tasche, neuter mein Buch and plural meine Bücher keep the same endings.

Apply these endings to the other owners too: dein Stift → deinen Stift, seine Tasche → seine Tasche, ihr Buch → ihr Buch. Choose the owner first, then check the noun’s gender, number and role.

Common mistakes

• Ich habe mein Stift. → Ich habe meinen Stift.

  The masculine object after habe needs meinen.

Limits & exceptions

• This block covers nominative and accusative only. Dative and genitive endings come later.

Why it matters

You can talk about shared belongings and address people politely.

Build the pattern

How it works

For “our”, use unser Buch, unsere Tasche, unsere Bücher and accusative masculine unseren Stift. The ending follows the same noun pattern.

When speaking informally to several people, use euer Buch. Before an ending, the usual shorter stem is eur-: eure Tasche, eure Bücher, euren Stift. The longer forms euere and eueren are also possible; the exercises accept them.

For “their”, use ihr Buch, ihre Tasche or ihren Stift. These forms look like “her”; context tells you whether the owner is one woman or several people.

Formal “your” uses a capital letter even inside a sentence: Ist das Ihr Buch? or Ich habe Ihren Stift. The same formal form addresses one or several people. Keep the capital letter when the exercise asks for formal “your”.

Common mistakes

• Ist das ihr Buch? → Ist das Ihr Buch?

  For formal “your”, capitalize Ihr inside the sentence. Lowercase ihr means “her” or “their” here.

Limits & exceptions

• At the start of a sentence, an initial capital alone cannot distinguish formal “your” from “her” or “their”. Read the context.

Why it matters

You can name the owner instead of using “his” or “her”.

Build the pattern

How it works

With a name such as Mila or Noah, add -s directly: Milas Buch, Noahs Tasche. In an ordinary phrase like these, do not copy the English apostrophe.

Use the same name form with a different belonging: Milas Stift, Milas Tasche, Milas Bücher. The added -s belongs to the name; it does not follow the noun’s gender or number.

Names ending in an s sound have a different spelling pattern: Max’ Buch, with an apostrophe after the name. This block’s typed questions use only Mila and Noah, so you can practise the basic pattern first.

Common mistakes

• Das ist Mila’s Buch. → Das ist Milas Buch.

  For this ordinary possessive phrase, attach -s directly to Mila.

Limits & exceptions

• Business names and other special spellings are outside this block. This is not a complete lesson on the genitive case.