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German Possessive Adjectives: A Comprehensive Guide with Exercises, Study notes of German Language

English and Foreign Languages UniversityGerman Language

A comprehensive guide to german possessive adjectives, covering their formation, usage, and common pitfalls. It includes a detailed table of possessive adjectives, fill-in-the-blank exercises to practice their usage, and short sentences to reinforce understanding. Suitable for learners of german at an intermediate level.

Typology: Study notes

2024/2025

Available from 03/21/2025

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kunal-singh-23 🇮🇳

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bg1
Possessive pronouns
We’ve been using a few possessive adjectives already (mein, dein), but now it’s time for you to learn all of
them. They’re really fairly simple, there are just two questions you need to ask yourself before deciding on
which possessive adjective will be correct:
This is my pen
1) Who ‘owns’ the object you’re talking about? Is it mine, yours, his, hers? Answering who owns the object will
tell you what base form possessive to use (mein, dein, sein, ihr, etc).
2) What gender, number, and case is the object (NOT the owner)? This will determine the endings that need to
be added on to the base form. For example, in the sentence “His mother is young” -- mother is feminine
singular and is in the nominative case, so the ending is just -e: Seine Mutter ist jung.
The endings for the possessive adjectives are exactly the same as the endings for ein and kein, so you should
already be familiar with the basic idea here:
Ein ein ein einen ein-e ein eine
OWNER BASE FORM MASC NOM MASC ACC FEM NEUT PLUR
ich mein (mine) mein meinen meine
du (sg) dein (your) dein deinen deine
er sein (his) sein seinen seine
sie (sg) ihr (her) ihr ihren ihre
es sein ( his) sein seinen seine
wir unser (our) unser unseren unsere
ihr euer (your) euer eueren eure
sie (pl) ihr (your) ihr ihren ihre
Sie (form) Ihr (your) ihr ihren ihre
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Download German Possessive Adjectives: A Comprehensive Guide with Exercises and more Study notes German Language in PDF only on Docsity!

Possessive pronouns We’ve been using a few possessive adjectives already (mein, dein), but now it’s time for you to learn all of them. They’re really fairly simple, there are just two questions you need to ask yourself before deciding on which possessive adjective will be correct: This is my pen

  1. Who ‘owns’ the object you’re talking about? Is it mine, yours, his, hers? Answering who owns the object will tell you what base form possessive to use (mein, dein, sein, ihr, etc).
  2. What gender, number, and case is the object (NOT the owner)? This will determine the endings that need to be added on to the base form. For example, in the sentence “His mother is young” -- mother is feminine singular and is in the nominative case, so the ending is just - e: Seine Mutter ist jung. The endings for the possessive adjectives are exactly the same as the endings for ein and kein, so you should already be familiar with the basic idea here: Ein ein ein einen ein-e ein eine OWNER BASE FORM MASC NOM MASC ACC FEM NEUT PLUR ich mein (mine) mein meinen meine du (sg) dein (your) dein deinen deine er sein (his) sein seinen seine sie (sg) ihr (her) ihr ihren ihre es sein ( his) sein seinen seine wir unser (our) unser unseren unsere ihr euer (your) euer eueren eure sie (pl) ihr (your) ihr ihren ihre Sie (form) Ihr (your) ihr ihren ihre

There are three common problems students sometimes have when learning these forms. Please note:

  1. “euer” drops its middle - e- when any endings are added (eure, not euere). This is just a quirk of German spelling and pronunciation.
  2. “unser” has an - er as part of the base form. Thus that - er will always be present, PLUS any case endings that occur after it (unseren, unsere).
  3. The owner of the object only determines what word to use, NOT what endings to use. For example, “his mother” -- it doesn’t matter that HE is masculine (that only shows that you need to use sein). Since mother is feminine, you need to add an - e to the base form of sein (seine Mutter). Becoming, changing, sein - nominative Now let’s try some fill-in-the-blank sentences.
  1. Hast du ________meine____________ (my) Telefonnummer (f)?
  2. Laura liest ________ihr____________ (her) Buch(n).
  3. Kinder, wo ist _____ihr_______________ (your, pl) Fernseher(m)?
  4. Das sind _____unsere_______________ (our) Großeltern(pl).
  5. _______seine_____________ (his) Freunde (pl) heißen Karl und Josef.
  6. Ich sehe _________dein___________ (your, sg) Buch(n).
  7. Konstanze besucht morgen _________ihre___________ (her) Tante(f).
  8. Die Kinder lieben _______ihren_____________ (their) Opa Frank(m).
  9. Sehen Sie ____unseren________________ (our) Vater(m)?
  10. Herr Obermann, _____ihre_______________ (Your, formal) Studenten (pl) lernen alles!
  11. Trinkst du jetzt __meinen__________________ (my) Wein(m)?
  12. Die Kinder essen _____ihre_______________ (their) Bananen(pl).
  13. Das ist ______dein______________ (your, sg) Uhr(n) , nicht wahr? Wahr - truth
  14. Ich sehe , _nicht_____ihre______________ (your, pl) Schwester(f).
  15. Das Buch ist alt, und ________seinen____________ (its) Titel (m) ist unlesbar.- lessen – to read
  16. Florian hört _______seinen_____________ (his) Professor(m) nicht.

Konjugationen. Choose an appropriate verb from each list, and conjugate it correctly for the sentence. fahren • geben • gehen • lesen • schlafen • spielen • sprechen

  1. Lena __spricht____________________ Französisch, Englisch, Deutsch und Niederländisch.
  2. Andreas _______fahrt_______________ gern Motorrad. Gern - like
  3. Melanie _____spielt_________________ Fußball und auch Tennis. Auch - also
  4. Ihr _____liest_________________ die Zeitung morgens beim Frühstück, oder?
  5. Herr(mr.) Meyer, __________Gehen____________ Sie heute Abend in das Kino?
  6. Lukas _____gibt_________________ seiner Schwester eine CD zum Geburtstag. - birthday
  7. Angelika ______schlaft________________ am Wochenende bis 11 Uhr. Bis - until essen • fahren • laufen – to run • sammeln – to collect • sehen • tragen – to wear/to carry
  • trinken
  1. Sophie ____lauft__________________ in Winter gern Ski. Gern - like
  2. _______trinkst_______________ du gern Bier(n)?
  3. Daniel _______isst_______________ jeden Morgen Eier und Speck.
  4. Dominik und Heike ___sehen___________________ abends gern fern.
  5. Markus ____sammelt__________________ Brief marken gern.
  6. Wir ________fahren______________ am Donnerstag nach Minneapolis.
  7. _____tragst_________________ du gern Shorts und T-Shirts? Fangen – to begin • faulenzen - to sit idle • kochen – to cook • nehmen – to take • schlafen
  • treffen – to meet • vergessen – to forget
  1. ____fangst__________________ du viele Kurse dieses Semester?
  2. Franziska _______trefft_______________ ihre Freunde in Café.
  3. Wer ______kocht________________ heute das Abendessen? Wer - who
  4. Normalerweise _________schlafe_____________ ich um Mitternacht ein. Normally – normalerweise
  5. Der Kurs/es _______fangt_______________ um 7 Uhr an.
  1. Ich ____vergesse__________________ immer (=always) deine Telefonnummer!
  2. Ihr ____faulenzet__________________ den ganzen Tag (=the whole day) und macht nichts Macht – to do (=nothing)? B. Possessive. Fill in the appropriate possessive adjective in each blank. Remember to add the appropriate endings for gender and nominative/accusative case!
  3. ________________ (my) Bruder ist verheiratet.
  4. Wir besuchen morgen ________________ (our) Freund Jörg.
  5. Ist das ________________ (your, sg) Orange?
  6. Kennst du ________________ (my) Schwester Julia?
  7. Das ist ________________ (her) Stift.
  8. Herr Meyer, bringen Sie bitte ________________ (Your, formal) Mantel (=coat, m) mit!
  9. Frau Geigner, ist das ________________ (Your, formal) Tasche?
  10. Anna nimmt ________________ (her) Bücher zur Schule.
  11. ________________ (his) Familie kommt aus der Türkei.
  12. Claudia liest ________________ (her) Zeitung (f).
  13. Hans, hast du ________________ (your, sg) Buch dabei?
  14. Siehst du ________________ (my) Apfel irgendwo (=anywhere)?
  15. ________________ (our) Vater arbeitet als Professor.
  16. ________________ (their) Freunde spielen gern Fußball, aber ________________ (my) Freunde spielen lieber Schach.
  17. Kinder, ihr könnt ________________ (your, pl) Vater fragen!
  18. Wir essen ________________ (our) Abendessen um 6 Uhr.
  19. Franz und Kristen, das sind ________________ (your, pl) Hausaufgaben da.
  20. Lars und Karl treffen ________________ (their) amerikanischen Freund in London.