Possessive articles in the nominative and accusative (mein, dein, sein...)

Possessive articles are the German equivalent of my, your, his, her, our, and their — words that show who something belongs to. The good news: you already know how they behave for singular nouns, because they follow the exact same pattern as ein. Learn those endings once, and you've learned them for every possessive article at the same time.

Quick shortcut: pick the right possessive stem for the owner (mein-, dein-, sein-...), then add the same ending ein would take for that noun's gender and case.

Possessive stems by owner

Each owner pronoun has its own possessive form; a few forms are shared:

Note that sein- covers both er (his) and es (its) — a thing referred to as er or es also takes sein-, since German grammatical gender, not real-world sex, decides the pronoun. ihr- covers both sie singular (her) and sie plural (their) — context tells them apart. Ihr- (formal your) is spelled with a capital I to distinguish it from ihr- (her/their), exactly the way Sie is capitalized to distinguish it from sie.

Endings work just like ein

The bare stem — mein, dein, sein — is used before masculine nouns in the nominative, and before neuter nouns in both the nominative and accusative. Every other combination of gender, case, and number takes the same ending ein would take:

• Mein Vater ist hier. (My father is here.) — masculine, nominative, no ending
• Ich sehe meinen Vater. (I see my father.) — masculine, accusative, -en
• Meine Mutter kocht. (My mother is cooking.) — feminine, -e, same in both cases
• Mein Kind schläft. (My child is sleeping.) — neuter, no ending, same in both cases
• Meine Kinder schlafen. (My children are sleeping.) — plural, -e, same in both cases

This is exactly the pattern of the accusative articles einen/eine/ein: only the masculine form changes between nominative and accusative — the feminine and neuter forms stay the same. Unlike ein (which has no ordinary plural), possessive articles also have a plural form, and it always looks the same as the feminine: -e.

Euer loses its e before an ending

Euer (your, plural informal) is the one stem with a small spelling twist: as soon as an ending is added, the e right before the r drops out, to keep the word pronounceable:

• ✅ Euer Hund ist süß. (Your dog is cute.) — no ending, full stem
• ✅ Eure Katze ist süß. — feminine, ✅ eure, not ❌ euere
• ✅ Ich sehe euren Hund. — masculine accusative, ✅ euren, not ❌ eueren

In everyday standard German, euer normally drops the middle e before an ending; the uncontracted forms euere/eueren exist but are uncommon, so stick with eure/euren. Unser can drop its e the same way (unsre alongside unsere), but for unser both forms are equally standard — for A1, unsere is the safest choice.

Common mistakes

• ❌ Meine Vater ist hier. → ✅ Mein Vater ist hier. (Vater is masculine, so the nominative stem takes no ending — the -e belongs to feminine nouns like Mutter)
• ❌ Ich sehe mein Vater. → ✅ Ich sehe meinen Vater. (masculine nouns need -en in the accusative, even though the nominative form has no ending)
• ❌ Das ist ihre Buch. (meaning "her book") → ✅ Das ist ihr Buch. (Buch is neuter, so it takes no ending — the noun's gender decides the ending, not the owner's)
• ❌ Euere Wohnung ist schön. → ✅ Eure Wohnung ist schön. (euer drops its middle e whenever an ending is added)

Quick check

Fill in the correct possessive form.

1. (ich) ____ Bruder wohnt in Berlin. (mein / meine)
2. (sie, she) Ich mag ____ Schwester. (ihr / ihre)
3. (wir) ____ Auto ist neu. (unser / unsere)
4. (du) Ich sehe ____ Hund. (dein / deinen)
5. (ihr) Wo ist ____ Lehrer? (euer / eure)

Key takeaways

• Each owner has its own possessive stem: mein-, dein-, sein-, ihr-, unser-, euer-, ihr-/Ihr-.
• Sein- covers both his and its; ihr- covers both her and their; Ihr- (formal your) is always capitalized.
• For singular nouns, the endings match ein exactly: no ending for masculine/neuter in the nominative, -e for feminine, -en for masculine in the accusative.
• Plural nouns always take -e, in both the nominative and accusative — the same ending as feminine.
• The noun's own gender and number decide the ending — not who the owner is.
• Euer normally drops its middle -e before an ending: eure, euren (not euere/eueren).