German possessive articles: mein, dein, Ihr.

Possessive roots for each person

Every personal pronoun has a matching possessive root word. These roots stand in front of a noun instead of der, die, das, or ein.

• Das ist mein Name.This is my name.
• Ist das Ihr Vorname?Is that your first name?

Masculine and neuter nouns take no ending

Before masculine (der) and neuter (das) nouns, possessive articles have no ending. They follow the exact same pattern as the word ein.

• Mein Vater heißt Thomas.My father is called Thomas.
• Sein Baby schläft.His baby is sleeping.

Feminine nouns add -e

Before feminine (die) nouns, you add the ending -e to the possessive root. This matches the ending of the indefinite article eine.

• Meine Mutter wohnt in Berlin.My mother lives in Berlin.
• Ist das deine Familie?Is that your family?

Exceptions to remember

• The word euer drops its middle e when adding the feminine ending -e. Eure Mutter wohnt hier.
• Capitalize Ihr and Ihre when speaking formally to someone you address as Sie. Ist das Ihre Adresse, Frau Meier?
• The word sein can mean the verb to be or the possessive article his. Sein Sohn ist vier Jahre alt.

Practice it in the course

This rule is chapter 13 of 31 in the A1 German course in Langvie, after The German indefinite article: ein, eine and before German plural nouns: endings and rules. In the app the chapter goes on with 8 exercises and a short spoken conversation with an AI partner, which opens with Wie heißt Ihre Mutter? Und wie heißt Ihr Vater?

Choose the correct possessive article. Das ist ___ Vater. (mein / meine / meiner)

mein. Masculine nouns take the base form without an ending. That is my father.

Every A1 chapter, in course order