3.3: Ein- words (including possessive pronouns)
- Page ID
- 79358
\( \newcommand{\vecs}[1]{\overset { \scriptstyle \rightharpoonup} {\mathbf{#1}} } \) \( \newcommand{\vecd}[1]{\overset{-\!-\!\rightharpoonup}{\vphantom{a}\smash {#1}}} \)\(\newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\) \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\) \( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\) \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\) \( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \(\newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\) \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\) \( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\) \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\) \( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\)\(\newcommand{\AA}{\unicode[.8,0]{x212B}}\)
These are the words similar to the indefinite article in the way they take or do not take endings. They are:
| mein | my |
| dien | your (singular and familiar) |
| sein | his / its |
| ihr | her / its / their |
| unser | our |
| euer | your (plural and familiar) |
| Ihr | your (informal) |
| kein | not a, no, not any |
Using mein as our example ein-word our chart looks as follows (compare with the indifinite article in Unit 2):
| MASCULINE | FEMININE | NEUTER | PLURAL | |
| NOMINATIVE | mein | meine | mein | meine |
| ACCUSATIVE | meinen | meine | mein | meine |
| DATIVE | meinem | meiner | meinem | meinen (Noun + n) |
| GENITIVE | meines (Noun + s/es) |
meiner | meines (Noun + s/es) |
meiner |
Points to remember:
- Ein– words with no endings are always either nominative singular or accusative singular.
- The ending –em on both ein– words and der– words is unique to dative singular.
- The ending –es with the noun adding an –s or –es is unique to genitive singular.
- When euer has an ending, the stem changes to eur-. Examples:
Euer Kind bekommt gute Noten.
Your child gets good grades.Eure Freunde kommen bald.
Your friends are coming soon. - Because German nouns are gendered, pronouns referring to them are also gendered. Review Unit 1, section 5, note "b)" and keep in mind that sein/ihr references might best be translated as "its."
Take the memorization advice from Unit 2 and expand your memorization task to include possessive pronouns. You should be noticing that the possessive pronouns, too, fit the general German spelling patterns for gender, case, and number distinctions.