Possessive determiners and their endings

In brief

Possessive determiners such as mein (my) and dein (your) come before a noun. Their stem shows whose person or thing it is; their ending depends on the noun’s gender and number and its role in the sentence. Unlike English my or your, the German form often changes.

Form

Choose a base: mein-, dein-, sein- (his/its), ihr- (her/their), unser-, euer or Ihr- (formal your). Add endings like those of ein: nominative mein Vater, meine Mutter, mein Kind, meine Freunde; accusative meinen Vater; dative meinem Vater, meiner Mutter, meinem Kind, meinen Freunden. Before an ending, euer usually becomes eur-: eure Tasche.

Usage

• Use the owner’s identity to choose the stem: sein Vater means his father; ihr Vater can mean her father or their father.
• Match the ending to the owned noun, not the owner: seine Mutter means his mother.
• In the dative plural, the noun usually also takes -n: mit meinen Freunden.

Examples

• Das ist mein Bruder. — This is my brother.
• Ich suche meine Schlüssel. — I’m looking for my keys.
• Er besucht seinen Vater. — He’s visiting his father.
• Sie spielt mit ihren Kindern. — She’s playing with her children.

Common mistake

❌ Ich sehe mein Vater.

✅ Ich sehe meinen Vater.

Vater is masculine and the object of sehen, so mein needs the accusative ending -en.

Remember

First choose whose it is; then choose the ending for the noun’s gender, number and case.