German Grammar Explained /
Possessive articles: Part I
We have learned one possessive article already: mein. But it's not all about you, so we naturally have a possessive article for every grammatical person. Remember the grammatical person?
You are a grammatical person.
Haha, very funny. I mean ich, du, er, sie...
Here are the singular forms:
Mein Hund heißt Otto.
My dog's name is Otto.
Deine Mutter ist sehr nett.
Your mother is very nice.
Das ist mein Bruder und seine Frau.
This is my brother and his wife.
Das ist meine Schwester und ihr Mann.
This is my sister and her husband.
Summing up:
| ich | → | mein |
| du | → | dein |
| er | → | sein |
| sie | → | ihr |
Am I supposed to know those?
Well, probably not yet, but once you have learned them, it's good to know that those endings apply to all possessives articles. Remember the letters that always show up in the different declensions?
Can you give me examples?
Okay, you can review those in the topic "Accusative: indefinite article" in Level 1.4., Lesson 1, but here are two examples:
1. The "n" for accusative masculine:
Ich sehe einen Mann.
Ich sehe meinen Mann.
Ich sehe deinen Mann.
Ich sehe ihren Mann.
...
2. The "m" for dative masculine:
Ich helfe einem Mann.
Ich helfe meinem Mann.
Ich helfe deinem Mann.
Ich helfe ihrem Mann.
...