Possessive Adjectives, Pronouns, and the Genitive Case
Today’s lesson is very important, we will talk and learn about Possessive Adjectives, Pronouns, and the Genitive Case.
Recall the following:
Karl: Ja. Und danach bringst du mich auf deinem Motorrad zu meiner Wohnung.
Which translates:
Carl: ‘Yes. And after that take me on your motorcycle to my apartment’.
The sentence demonstrates two of the possessive adjectives. These are (singular) ‘my’, ‘your’, and ‘his/her/its’ in English and mein, dein, and sein/ihr/sein in German. Note that because these are adjectives, the word ending must reflect the case and gender of the noun being modified.
In German, the genitive case correspond to the English possessive case or to the objective case proceeded by of to denote possession. If the possessive is not followed by a noun, it becomes a possessive pronoun.
| NOM. | ACC. | DAT. | POSS. PRON. | |
| I, me | ich | mich | mir | mein |
| you | du | dich | dir | dein |
| he, him | er | ihn | ihm | sein |
| she, her | sie | sie | ihr | ihr |
| it | es | es | ihm | sein |
| we, us | wir | uns | uns | unser |
| you (all) | ihr | euch | euch | eurer |
| they, them | sie | sie | ihnen | ihr |
| you (formal) | Sie | Sie | Ihnen | Ihr |
The pattern in the case endings of the possessive adjectives is that seen in Lektion 4 for the word ein. We can generalize these endings as in the following table, where we can express plural endings because other so-called ein-words do have plurals:
| |
Ein-group Endings | |||
| NOM. | ACC. | DAT. | GEN. | |
| Masculine | — – | -en | – –em | -es |
| Feminine | –e | –e | –er | –er |
| Neuter | — | — | –em | –es |
| Plural | –e | –e | –en | –er |
The small group of words that take these endings (in addition to ein) includes the possessive adjectives and kein (“not any” or “no” in the sense of none).
