Possessives are words indicate that something belongs to somebody (e.g. in English: my, your, her).
Possessive adjectives
Possessives adjectives are used in a similar way in English and in German. Use the male pronoun “his” to indicate that it belongs to male person. If something belongs to a female person, you take the female pronoun “her”.
The problem: In German, the endings of possessive adjectives must agree in gender and case with the noun that they are linked to, but endings follow some pattern.
- In the nominative case, the possessive have no endings for masculine and neuter nouns. If it is feminine or plural, “-e” is added to the possessive.
- In the dative case, the possessive takes the endings -em when referring to masculine and neuter nouns and -er if the noun is feminine. In the plural add “-en”.
- In the accusative case, the possessive adds “-en” when it appears before a masculine noun. The feminine and plural forms take an extra “-e”.
Overview
Examples: Possessive adjectives are mein, dein, unser, euer ….
German “mein” (eng. my):
Other possessive adjectives:
- ein (German) – a/an (English)
- dein (German) -your (English)
- sein (German) – his/its (English)
- ihr (German) – her (English)
- unser (German) – our (English)
- euer (German) – your (English)
- ihr (German) – their (English)
- kein (German) -no/not any (English)
FURTHER INFORMATION
