Genitive case: Possessive articles
Possessive articles are words like ‘my’, ‘his’ and ‘their’. They indicate to whom something belongs.
| Personal pronoun | Possessive article |
|---|---|
| ich | mein |
| du | dein |
| er | sein |
| sie | ihr |
| es | sein |
| wir | unser |
| ihr | euer |
| sie | ihr |
| Sie | Ihr |
The endings of possessive articles are like those of the indefinite article ein and the negative article kein.
The endings depend on the noun that comes after the possessive article, i.e. the gender and number of that noun and the case it is in.
In the following table you see as an example the forms of mein in the nominative.
The other possessive articles follow the same pattern.
In the feminine and plural forms of unser and euer, the –e– in the middle is sometimes dropped: uns(e)re and eu(e)re.
| Masculine | Feminine | Neutral | Plural | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | meine Computer | meine Tasche | mein Buch | meine Stifte |
| Accusative | meinen Computer | meine Tasche | mein Buch | meine Stifte |
| Dative | meinem Computer | meiner Tasche | meinem Buch | meinen Stiften |
| Genitive | meines Computers | meiner Tasche | meines Buches | meiner Stifte |
An extra -s or -es is added to masculine and neuter nouns in the genitive.
-es is often added to nouns with only one syllable: sein Buch – der Titel seines Buches/der Titel seines Buchs
-es is always added to nouns ending with -s, -ß, x, – z, -tz: mein Glas – die Farbe meines Glases
-s is added to nouns with more than one syllable: unser Hotel – der Name unseres Hotels