Yours? You’ll have less to memorize, and you also see the beautiful rhyme & reason behind many German grammar structures. applies to many other aspects of German grammar as well. You can see the gender options listed across the top (masc., fem., neut., and plural) and the case options listed down the left side (nom, acc., dat., gen). -m, -r, -s, -e, -n) that reflect the gender & case of the noun you’re replacing with the possessive pronoun. With Lingolia Plus you can access 9 additional exercises about Possessive Pronouns, as well as 845 online exercises to improve your German. Step 2: Find the corresponding place in the All-In-One Declensions Chart (coming up!) But how do you say ‘that cat is mine’ when you’re in a situation that urgently calls for distinguishing between cats and/or between their pets … er, owners? Just as in English, German possessive pronouns are … used to indicate possession of non-people the very last or very first (<– more common than in English) word in a sentence very nearly identical to German possessive determiners He has two small cousins who are constantly bickering. Some possessive pronouns have multiple uses — e.g. Now, here is the awesome part: ALL of these points on English possessive pronouns also apply to German possessive pronouns — SWEET! Hast du noch deinen? I’m going to walk you through what you need to in the very next section! As you can see, possessive pronouns are shortcuts that save us from needing to repeat ourselves all the time. formal? When to use a German possessive pronoun is very easy: you use them exactly in those same instances that you’d use a possessive pronoun in English. But this time it should be slightly more familiar, as English has kept some of these distinctions too. A possessive pronoun (mine, yours, his, hers, ours, or theirs) replaces a noun phrase that also has a possessive determiner (e.g. In English we have just 6 possessive pronouns and done! Working on using pronouns to replace nouns can really bring your German up to the next level. declensions) on their tailends. The pencil / car / soda / cat / jacket … is mine. There are a lot of pronouns in English, but even more in German — BUT there are just 6 possessive pronouns in both languages! Possessive pronouns are usually the very first or very last words in a sentence. There are dependent and independent possessive pronouns in German grammar, both types have to be declined. If you add the ‘r’ to ‘sein’, you get seinr — does that work or are we forgetting something? If you add the ‘n’ to ‘dein’ (and remembering the filler ‘e’! You can use a chart like the one above that has everything spelled out for you. ), you get deinen. Like articles and adjectives, pronouns in German vary according to gender and case. In fact, this concept of working with formulas & patterns, etc. Rather than memorizing multiple charts where each possessive pronoun is totally spelled out, it’s better to memorize ONE chart of declensions only and learn how to ‘plug in’ the root possessive pronouns to get the result you need. Possessive pronouns are used to indicate whoowns / possesses whatever noun (or noun phrase) is being replaced: That crazy cat is my crazy cat → That crazy cat is mine. theirs? (Notice how the possessive pronouns and the possessive determiners are nearly identical!). What is the declension listed there? etc. the gender and number of that noun and the case it is in. What we need to do in these instances is add a little glue in the form of an ‘e’: meiner, meinen, meinem. No, really. Well, the following chart gives you an overview about the singular and plural forms of dependent possessive pronouns in the nominative, accusative, dative and genitive cases. Unlike p… Thankfully, there’s a chart for that! What is the case of the item? Possessive pronouns are used (when the context is clear) to replace nouns / noun phrases that have a possessive determiner at the start of them: My pencil is red → Mine is red. used to indicate possession of non-people, the very last or very first (<– more common than in English) word in a sentence, very nearly identical to German possessive. If you try to do that with mein- (mine), you would get meinr, meine, meins, meinn, meinm dependent on where on the chart you are. If you want to express possession (<-- loosely defined) of people, you need to use a possessive determiner: my, your, his, her, our, and their. We use independent possessive pronouns only after certain expressions requiring genitive (see Declension/Genitive). Maybe you’ve even learned how to say that’s my cat (<– nice job, btw!). Pronoun: dein– (your)Noun: der Kuchen (cake, masculine)Case: accusative (direct object). Example:that crazy cat with 3 legs and a stumpy tail (noun phrase)→ it (pronoun). Rather than spelling out each possessive pronoun with each possible declension attached to it, this is a chart of JUST the single-letter declensions (-m, -r, -n, -e, -s) that get added to the ‘root’ / ‘base’ possessive pronouns. ← Yikes. that matches the gender & case of the noun (e.g. Possessive pronouns indicate possession. What is the gender of the item? The nominative personal pronouns ich, du, er, sie, es, wir, ihr, sie(English equivalents: I, you, he, she, it, we, y’all, they) are listed across the top. Maybe you’ve already learned the personal pronouns in the nominative, accusative, and dative. both meines AND meins are acceptable. An ‘n’. Then put your knowledge to the test in the exercises. singular? As you can see, the use of the accusative of possessive pronouns is pretty straightforward and the follow the rules most of the times. The dog likes Frank. In fact, the only time they don’t need to be added is when the -e declension is listed in the chart (e.g. If you learn principles & patterns, then you can ‘plug different values into the formula’ to also always get the exact answer that you need — but in a much more self-sufficient, practical, efficient way that supports fluent speaking. Note: the ‘e’ filler/glue for the neuter nominative & accusative is also optional: e.g. Alex is staying with his family while he is studying in Germany for a semester. seiner is then the result. Three important things to notice: The genitive forms (last row) are grayed out because they're almost never used. The all-in-one chart I’m going to share with you is a declensions chart that replaces a whopping 10 conventional charts!!! Usually,possessive pronouns might be learned with an intense chart like this: You have the 3 cases (nominativ, dativ, akkusativ) on the left-hand side. The 6 possessive pronouns in English are mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs. There are 5 possible declensions (-m, -n, -r, -e, -s), so there are 5 ways to say each possessive pronoun, e.g. Again, the benefit of learning declensions this way — where you need to know the formulas & patterns for using it — is that then you are not dependent on being spoon-fed German. These added ‘e’s don’t mean anything — they are just filler — but they almost always need to be added between a root/base possessive pronoun & the desired declension. Possessive pronouns are nearly identical to possessive determiners (they both have the same ‘roots’), but sometimes take different declensions. But in German, we have 6 ‘root’ (or ‘base’) possessive pronouns that then take little changes (i.e. It’s the how to use a German possessive pronoun that is harder. Maybe read those guides next!). We've included them mainly because they give you th… of the pencil). So, that’s pretty straightforward. Possessive pronouns ALWAYS take the strong declensions (for whatever gender they have & case they are in). In other words. feminine & plural, nominative & plural). yours? Our online exercises for German help you to learn and practice grammar rules in an interactive manner. Knowing which form of ‘you’ to use — informal? Independent possessive pronouns replace previously mentioned nouns, they stand on their own in a sentence i.e they are not used together with a noun. There are dependent and independent possessive pronouns in German grammar, both types must agree with their noun in case, gender and number. Dependent possessive pronouns come before nouns, which is why they are also called possessive articles.