Possessive Articles

What are Possessive Articles? (Possessivartikel)

Possessive articles indicate who owns what, and thus show ownership and affiliation.

They come before the noun. Sometimes they are also referred to as Possessive Adjectives, Possessive Determiners or Possessive Pronouns (which are similar but not the same as Possessive Articles, although many teachers teach it as the same!)

Example:

• „Das ist Anna. Ihre Katze spielt im Garten.“

Declension of Possessive Articles

Possessive Articles have to be declined, just like all Articles.

• The Declension is based on the noun that comes after the Possessive Article (what is "owned" or what "belongs" to someone)
• Declension is the same for all Possessive Articles (meinem, deinem, seinem, ihrem, unserem,...) and is based on the gender, case and number of the noun that is "owned" (and that comes after the Possessive Article).

Exception:

• euer Vater ⇒ euren Vater

If you add an ending to „euer“, you must drop the „e“ in the middle.

The person of reference is Anna. ⇒ Possessive: 3. Person Feminine ⇒ ihr

„Katze“ is the noun to whom the article belongs to.

⇒ Number: Singular (only one Cat)

⇒ Gender: Feminine (die Katze)

⇒ Cases: Nominative

⇒ Nominative + Singular + Feminine = ihre

More Examples:

A: „Das ist Jens. Sein Auto steht vor unserem Haus.“

B: „Ist Jens dein Freund?“

A: „Ja, Jens ist mein Freund. Er holt mich ab.“

B: „Na dann viel Spaß bei eurem Ausflug.“

A: „Danke, werden wir haben."