Possessive articles — mein, dein, sein

"My book," "your car," "her idea." English does this with my, your, her and just plugs them in. German does the same — but the possessive then has to agree with the noun it sits in front of, exactly like ein does. If you know ein/einen/einem, you already know 90% of this lesson.

The base words

One per person. Learn the base form — we'll decline it next.

ihr does triple duty: "her," "their," and (capitalized) "your (formal)." Context decides. sein covers both "his" and "its" — because the "owner" is a masculine/neuter noun grammatically, not because the owner is male.

They decline like ein

Take the base (mein) and add whatever ending ein would take in that case and gender. Done. Use the dropdown below to swap stems — the endings stay the same.

Compare with ein — same endings. That's why they share the name "ein-words."

Worked example

Mein Bruder ruft seinen Freund an. My brother is calling his friend.

Walk it through:

• Mein Bruder — Bruder is masculine, subject → Nominativ → mein (no ending on masculine Nominativ, matches ein).
• seinen Freund — Freund is masculine, direct object → Akkusativ → seinen (add -en, matches einen).
• sein- because the owner is mein Bruder (a "he" noun). We use sein for his/its.

Flip the gender of the owner and you get ihren Freund instead, because now the owner is a "she."

The agreement rule that trips everyone up

The possessive agrees with the possessed thing, not the owner. English does the opposite — his vs. her reflects the owner. German reflects the noun.

One trick that helps: in your head, first pick the right base word (mein/dein/sein/…), then ask "what case and gender is the noun?" and stick the ending on. Two separate decisions, done in order.

euer — the dropping-e quirk

euer is the only one that looks slightly weird. When you add an ending, the middle -e- usually drops to keep things pronounceable: euer → eure, euren, eurem, eurer. Native speakers do this automatically. You don't have to know the phonology reason; just expect the base to shorten.

Common mistakes, named

1. Agreeing with the owner. Mein Mutter ist... ❌ → Meine Mutter ist... ✓ Mutter is feminine, so mein needs the feminine ending. Doesn't matter that "I" is the owner.

2. Forgetting Akkusativ. Ich liebe mein Vater. ❌ → Ich liebe meinen Vater. ✓ Vater is Akkusativ (direct object). Masculine Akk adds -en.

3. Confusing sein (his/its) with Sie (you). Das ist sein Buch = that's his book. If the owner is a woman or plural people, swap to ihr.

4. Dropping the capital on Ihr. If you're addressing someone formally, Ihr Buch has a capital Ihr. Lowercase ihr means her or their and changes the meaning.

Mini check

Where this leads

Now you can form subjects, objects, and own things. Time to learn the first batch of prepositions that force Akkusativ — these show up constantly in everyday speech.

Next up: Akkusativ-Präpositionen — durch, für, gegen, ohne, um.

Test yourself