Possessive articles

Good news first: possessives take exactly the same endings as ein and kein. You already learned that pattern, so this lesson is mostly about learning seven new stems.

Start where it is easy: the nominative, where the noun is the subject. Masculine and neuter take no ending; feminine and plural take -e.

• Das ist mein Freund.

  That is my friend.

  der Freund → mein

• Meine Frau kommt aus Deutschland.

  My wife comes from Germany.

  die Frau → meine

• Ist das dein Auto?

  Is that your car?

  das Auto → dein

• Wie heißt Ihre Frau?

  What is your wife called? (formal)

The ending agrees with the noun that follows, not with the owner. Meine Frau — feminine ending because Frau is feminine, even though I am not.

Now the accusative. Only one thing changes, and it is the same one thing as always: masculine adds -en.

• Ich sehe meinen Freund.

  I see my friend.

  masculine object → meinen

• Ich besuche meine Schwester.

  I am visiting my sister.

  feminine — unchanged

• Wir besuchen unsere Freunde.

  We are visiting our friends.

  plural — unchanged

• Ich nehme mein Auto.

  I am taking my car.

  neuter — unchanged

And the dative, which you have already been using after mit, bei, von and zu: masculine and neuter take -em, feminine takes -er, plural takes -en.

• Ich spreche mit meiner Schwester.

  I am talking with my sister.

• Ich fahre mit meinem Auto.

  I am going in my car.

• Ich bin bei meinen Eltern.

  I am at my parents’ place.

Two small traps. ihr means both her and their, and capitalised Ihr means formal your — context does the work. And euer drops its second e when an ending is added: euer → eure Freunde, not euere.