German possessives: mein, dein, sein and ihr

Two decisions to choose the possessive

A possessive before a noun expresses ownership or a relationship: “my ticket”, “her sister”. The stem shows who it belongs to; the ending depends on the noun it goes with and its role in the sentence.

Compare Jonas sucht seine Tasche. (“Jonas is looking for his bag”) and Mira sucht ihre Tasche. (“Mira is looking for her bag”). As in English, the owner changes the stem. Now compare Mira sucht ihren Schlüssel. (“Mira is looking for her key”): ihren appears because Schlüssel is masculine and the object in Akkusativ. That second step has no equivalent in English.

Endings of mein as a model

In the singular, these possessive articles follow the pattern of ein. They also have a plural, as the last column shows:

Use the table by swapping the stem: mit meinem Bruder (“with my brother”), mit deinem Bruder (“with your brother”). In the Dativ plural, also check the form of the noun: mit meinen Freunden (“with my friends”).

Ihr, ihr and the forms of euer

Ihr with a capital letter is the possessive of the formal Sie: Ist das Ihr Ticket? (“Is this your ticket?”). Lower-case ihr can mean “her” or “their”; the context makes the owner clear.

When you add endings to euer, the contracted forms eure, euren, eurem, eurer, eures are usual: Wo ist eure Wohnung? (“Where is your flat?”, speaking informally to several people). Don’t confuse this stem with the subject pronoun ihr.

How to study without memorising isolated phrases

Write down an owner, a noun with its article and a role. For example: “I”, der Bruder, “with” → mit meinem Bruder. Then change only the owner or the case. If you add an adjective, you’ll need its own endings: continue with adjective endings.

This table describes possessives before a noun. For “mine” or “yours” used on their own, there are other forms; don’t automatically transfer a cell from this table.

Exercises with answers

Answer before opening the solutions. Each answer explains the reason for the form:

1. Ich suche ___ Pass. My passport; der Pass.
2. Lea besucht ___ Schwester. Lea’s sister.
3. Ben fährt mit ___ Tochter. Ben’s daughter.
4. Wir treffen ___ Freunde. Our friends.
5. Ist das ___ Adresse? Your address; formal.
6. Ihr sucht ___ Schlüssel. Your keys; plural, informal.

Show answers and explanations

1. meinen: owner ich and a masculine object in Akkusativ.
2. ihre: stem ihr- for Lea; Schwester is feminine, in Akkusativ.
3. seiner: stem sein-; mit takes the feminine Dativ.
4. unsere: owner wir and plural in Akkusativ.
5. Ihre: formal possessive with a capital letter, feminine nominative.
6. eure: owner ihr; Akkusativ plural with the contracted form of euer.