German Grammar * Review & Exercises

POSSESSIVE ARTICLES

There are no personal pronouns for the genitive case. Their genitive equivalent are the possessive articles (also called possessive determiners, adjectives, or pronouns). The chart shows the (nominative) personal pronoun and the appropriate possessive article (basic form).

• The choice of the correct possessive article is determined by (the gender of) the owner ("his", "her", etc.);
• The ending is determined by the gender, number, and case of the owned object. Use the endings from the negation of the indefinite article (kein etc.; see lower line) in the chart on the right.
• Note that unser and euer (plural) drop the -e- in accusative, dative, and genitive: unsr- and eur-, respectively.

Beispiele

1. Das ist das Auto meines Bruders.
   = mein- because I want to express he is my brother;
   = -es because it is genitive, and Bruder is der = ein, and genitive of ein is eines.
2. Was gibst du deiner Schwester zum Geburtstag?
   = dein- because I am asking about your sister;
   = -er because it is dative, and Schwester is die = eine, and dative of eine is einer.
3. Sie gibt ihren Schwestern keine Geschenke.
   = ihr- because the owner is feminine;
   = -en because it is dative and plural (Schwestern), and the dative plural ending is -en.
4. Eure Mutter hat gestern angerufen.
   = The e from euer- is dropped.

ÜBUNGEN

© 1999ff. Horst Kurz. All rights reserved.