Possessive Adjectives

Possessive Pronouns & Adjectives in Elementary German

OK, so some of you are struggling with possessive adjectives in German. Here’s a brief guide. In order to talk about the possessive adjectives, you have to know your personal pronouns too, so look to the left column for those, and the right column for the possessive adjectives.

Singular:

The singular personal pronouns (Personalpronomen) are: in English: I, you, he, she, it and auf Deutsch: ich, Sie (or du), er, sie, es

However, since German nouns have genders, er, sie, and es can refer back to previously mentioned nouns in a sentence.

Example: Der Computer ist fantastisch.   Or:   Er ist fantastisch.

The “er” could be referring back to the gender of computer. This is also true with feminine and neuter examples:

Die Frau ist hübsch.   Or:   Sie ist hübsch.

Das Baby ist niedlich (cute).   Or: Es ist niedlich.

So as a general rule, you should make a habit of using the same gendered pronoun to refer back to the gender of the noun. If you have no idea or talking about the idea of something, like “das Konzept,” you can say “es,” which will communicate, even if it might not be 100% appropriate in every context.

Plural:

*Note: unser is just like an ein word. Unser confuses more people though because they think the ending of unser (er) has to do with a der word. It does NOT.

Examples with unser in the Nominative:

[der Computer] Unser Computer ist ein Macbook.

[die Katze] Unsere Katze ist in Flammen (Our cat is in flames).

[das Haus] Unser Haus ist herrlich. (Our house is awesome).

[die Hünde, pl.] Unsere Hünde sind voll Lügen. (Our dogs are full of lies).

Examples with “unser” in the Accusative:

[der Droid] Ich liebe unseren Droid. (I love our Droid).

[die Mama] Ich liebe unsere Mama. (I love our mama).

[das Baby] Ich liebe unser Baby. ( I love the baby).

[die Babys (plural)] Ich liebe unsere Babys. (I love the babies).

If you’re just starting out, focus on the vocabulary of the above list of words instead of understanding exactly why they appear in the different forms that they do. You can pretty much rest assured that the different forms are from 1 of 3 things.

Thing 1: The gender of the noun (der, die, or das)

Thing 2: The case (in elementary German, whether it is Nominative or Accusative – later, it could also be Dativ or Genitiv).

Thing 3: Whether it’s singular or plural

After you have the basic vocabulary knowledge, you’ll want to do lots of examples until you get a hang out of it.

Tipp des Tages (Tip of the Day): Create basic sentences in both the singular and the plural now, changing ONLY the possessive adjective. Keep it as simple as possible first.

Singular:

Das ist mein Computer.    Then modify the possessive adjective each time according to the chart:

Das ist Ihr Computer. (That is your [formal] computer).

Das ist dein Computer.

Das ist sein Computer. (That is his computer).

Das ist ihr Computer (That is her computer).

Das ist sein Computer (That is its computer).

Plural:

Das ist unser Computer. (That is our computer).

Das ist euer Computer. (That is y’all’s computer).

Das ist Ihr / ihr Computer. (That is your computer (formal) / That is their computer.)

After you have done this and gotten a feel for it, read this: Handout: Possessive Adjectives

Then do these exercises, which also include anser keys to check the correctness of your fun with German pronouns & adjectives:

Arbeitsblatt: Possessive und Konjunktionen (dazu auch: Lösungsblatt)

Arbeitsblatt: Verben, Possessive und Konjunktionen (für Anfänger) (dazu auch: Lösungsblatt)

Andere Übungen (Other Exercises) on Possessive Pronouns / Adjectives without answer keys (best used with the help of someone who knows German, of course!)

Übungen: Possessivadjektive, Verben, Konjunktionen

Übungen: Verben, Konjunktionen, Possessivadjektive