A possessive determiner tells you whose thing or person you mean. Choose its stem from the owner and its ending from the noun phrase.

der Bruder
die Schwester
der Schlüssel
das Fahrrad
der Freund
der Pass

The idea

Mein refers to me, dein to you informally, sein to a masculine or neuter owner, and ihr to a feminine owner or plural owners. Formal your is Ihr. Endings follow the noun's gender, number and case: mein Bruder, meine Schwester, meinen Bruder. Euer often loses an e when an ending is added: eure Tasche.

Patterns to compare
PersonPossessiv
ichmein
dudein
er / essein
sieihr
wirunser
ihreuer
sie / Sieihr / Ihr

Examples

  • Das ist mein Bruder.
  • Das ist meine Schwester.
  • Ich suche meinen Schlüssel.
  • Ist das dein Fahrrad?
  • Wir besuchen unsere Freunde.
  • Ist das Ihr Pass?

Read-aloud uses a synthetic German voice available on your device. Voice quality and availability vary; it does not assess your pronunciation.

Watch out

Do not choose the ending from the owner's gender. The same speaker can say meine Schwester and mein Bruder; the ending follows the noun being described.

Try it yourself

  1. Das ist ___ Tasche. (ich)

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    meine

    The owner is ich, giving mein; feminine Tasche adds e: meine.

  2. Ich sehe ___ Bruder. (du)

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    deinen

    Bruder is masculine and an accusative object, so dein becomes deinen.

  3. Ist das ___ Buch, Frau Weber? (Sie: Possessivform)

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    Ihr

    The direct formal address to Frau Weber uses capitalized Ihr; neuter Buch needs no added ending.

Use it today

Describe two family members or belongings with mein/meine. Then use one masculine noun as the object of sehen.