German Possessive Pronouns: mein, dein, sein, ihr
After this lesson you can say what belongs to you and to other people.
Do this first: der, die, das
German Possessive Pronouns: mein, dein, sein, ihr
mein, dein, sein, ihr say whose it is. They take exactly the same endings as ein, so learning one pattern covers the whole family.
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Kulturnotiz
Das Handy is a genuine German word for a mobile phone, not borrowed from English — no English speaker calls a phone a "handy". It belongs to a family of German-made pseudo-anglicisms including der Beamer (a projector) and das Public Viewing (an outdoor screening). They sound like English and will not be understood by English speakers, which catches learners out in both directions.
Common questions
+How do I know whether to add -e?
Look at the noun's article. die words — feminine nouns and all plurals — take -e. der and das words take nothing. The noun decides, not the owner.
+How do I tell "her" from "their"?
You cannot from the word alone — both are ihr. Context does the work: Ihre Mutter after talking about one woman is "her mother"; after talking about a couple it is "their mother".
+Why is Ihr sometimes capitalised?
Capital Ihr is the formal "your", matching Sie. Lower-case ihr is "her" or "their". In speech they sound identical, so speakers rely on context; in writing the capital removes the ambiguity.
+Does euer change spelling?
Yes — it loses its second e when an ending is added: euer Vater but eure Mutter. It is the one possessive that shifts its stem, and it trips up learners who expect euere.