108 A-C Possessive words

Possessive Words

In English, ‘my’ is ‘my’ and ‘his’ is ‘his’ regardless of whether the noun is masculine, feminine, or neuter = my husband (a ‘he’), my wife (a ‘she’), my book (an ‘it’).

In German, however, words like ‘my’ and ‘your’ reflect the gender of the thing/person that ‘is being owned’. German Possessive pronouns take the same endings as the article ‘ein(e)’ which is determined by the noun’s gender

z.B.

• der Kuli = ein Kuli → mein/dein/sein/ihr/unser/euer/ihr/Ihr Kuli
• die Uhr = eine Uhr → meine/deine /… Uhr
• das Haus = ein Haus → mein/dein/… Haus
• die Eltern = meine/deine/… Eltern

(Note: There is no plural form of ‘ein’ but there is one for the possessives. This plurality is indicated by the -e ending.)

Thus, ‘mein Hunde‘ or ‘unser Eltern‘ is impossible in German because ‘Hunde’ and ‘Eltern’ are plural but ‘mein’ and ‘unser’ imply singular (because there is no ‘e‘).

Similarly, ‘mein Mutter’ makes no sense because ‘mein’ can only refer to something masculine or neuter (it is missing the ‘e‘ which would imply a feminine or plural noun).

Thus, ‘mein Hunde‘ or ‘unser Eltern‘ is impossible in German because ‘Hunde’ and ‘Eltern’ are plural but ‘mein’ and ‘unser’ imply singular (because there is no ‘e‘).