mein, dein, sein: German possessive articles made simple
How to say my, your, his and her in German. The endings follow ein/kein, so once you know those, possessives come almost for free.
Possessive articles tell us who something belongs to: mein Buch (my book), deine Tasche (your bag). The good news is that they all take the exact same endings as ein and kein, so you are not learning a new system — just a new stem.
The basic stems
- mein = my, dein = your (informal), sein = his/its
- ihr = her/their, unser = our, euer = your (plural informal)
- Ihr = your (formal, always capitalised)
Endings follow ein/kein
Add the ein-word endings according to gender, number and case. mein Vater (masc.), meine Mutter (fem.), mein Kind (neut.), meine Eltern (plural). In the accusative the masculine adds -en: Ich sehe meinen Bruder. In the dative: mit meinem Vater, mit meiner Mutter.
Watch out for sein vs ihr
The owner decides the stem; the thing owned decides the ending. A man's car is sein Auto; a woman's car is ihr Auto — both neuter nouns, but the stem changes with the owner. Do not let the noun's gender pull you to the wrong stem.
euer drops its e when an ending is added: euer Haus, but eure Wohnung, euren Garten. This irregularity trips up almost everyone, so flag it early.
Häufig gestellte Fragen
How do I form possessives in German?
Take the stem (mein, dein, sein, ihr, unser, euer, Ihr) and add the same endings as ein/kein, matching the gender, number and case of the noun that is owned.
Is it sein or ihr for her?
Use ihr for a female owner (and for they/plural). sein is for a male or neuter owner. The owner, not the owned noun, decides between sein and ihr.