5.5.1.1: nominative possessive determiners

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Zsuzsanna Abrams and co-workers
University of California Santa Cruz via Center for Open Educational Resources and Language Learning

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Determiners:Possessivpronomen Als Artikel - Nominativ

Possessive determiners (they are actually not pronouns unless they replace a noun!) are similar in function to definite and indefinite articles. They precede nouns and provide additional information about that noun, specifically, who owns them ...

die Katze	Meine Besitzerin hat mich hinausgeworfen. Ich bin leider zu alt!	My owner threw me out. I am unfortunately too old!
der Hund	Was ist ihr Problem?	What is her problem?

These are the basic forms of the possessive determiners:

ich	mein	my
du	dein	your
er	sein	his
sie	ihr	her
es	sein	its
wir	unser	our
ihr	euer	your (think 'you guys')
sie	ihr	their
Sie	Ihr	your (formal)

Gender and the Possessive Determiners

Once you have identified who owns what or whom you are talking about, you need to add the appropriate endings to the possessive determiners, based on the gender of the noun being owned... In English, there are no different endings, of course. But in German, here is what happens to mein (my), for example, when it encounters nouns of different genders/numbers (remember, these are grammatical genders, not biological ones!):

Mit der Katze ist viel los ... (the cat has lots of problems)
masculine	Mein Kopf tut mir weh.	My head hurts.
feminine	Meine Zunge ist immer trocken.	My tongue is always dry.
neuter	Mein Haar wird immer verfilzter.	My hair is getting more and more matted.
plural	Meine Augen sind nicht mehr sehr gut.	My eyes aren't very good any more.

So ...

Step 1: Choose the correct possessive determiner based on who owns X (mein, dein, sein, etc.).
Step 2: Choose the correct ending, based on the gender and number of the noun that is being owned.

Here are the endings for the possessive determiners:

masculine noun follows (no visible suffix)	feminine noun follows (-e suffix)	neuter noun follows (no visible suffix)	plural noun follows (-e suffix)
mein Kopf	meine Zunge	mein Haar	meine Augen
dein Kopf	deine Zunge	dein Haar	deine Augen
sein Kopf	seine Zunge	sein Haar	seine Augen
ihr Kopf	ihre Zunge	ihr Haar	ihre Augen
sein Kopf	seine Zunge	sein Haar	seine Augen
unser Kopf	uns(e)re Zunge	unser Haar	uns(e)re Augen
euer Kopf	eu(e)re Zunge	euer Haar	eu(e)re Augen
ihr Kopf	ihre Zunge	ihr Haar	ihre Augen
Ihr Kopf	Ihre Zunge	Ihr Haar	Ihre Augen

If unser or euer precedes feminine or plural nouns, the original -e- may be left out.

Possessive Pronouns

Possessive determiners can replace an entire noun phrase; in this case, they become possessive pronouns (such as the English examples: Where are my glasses? On your nose, and where are mine?). Here is an example set with mein/meiner:

Der Hund hat Mitleid! (the dog can sympathize)

masculine	Mein Kopf tut mir weh.	Meiner tut mir auch weh!	Mine hurts too!
feminine	Meine Zunge ist immer trocken.	Meine auch!	Mine is too!
neuter	Mein Haar wird immer verfilzter.	Meines auch!	Mine too!
plural	Meine Augen sind nicht mehr sehr gut.	Meine sind auch nicht sehr gut!	Mine are also not very good!

The endings on the possessive pronouns are the same as der-words.

Gehören + dative as an alternative to possessive determiners

You can also express possession with the verb gehören. For details, see gehören under dative verbs, but here are two quick examples:

gehören + dative = possessive determiner

die Katze	Wem gehört dieser Wecker?	Who does this alarm clock belong to?
der Esel	Wem, wem ... er gehört natürlich dem Haushahn!	Who, who ... naturally it belongs to the rooster!
die Katze	Das ist sein Wecker? Warum braucht ein Haushahn einen Wecker?	It's his alarm clock? Why does a rooster need an alarm clock?