English splits its possessives into two families: the ones that sit in front of a noun (my book) and the ones that stand on their own (the book is mine). Afrikaans does exactly the same, and this page is about the second family — the standalone possessives myne, joune, syne, hare and the plural forms built with s'n. These are the words you reach for when you have dropped the noun and want to say "mine", "yours", "his", "ours". The noun-preceding family (my boek, jou kar) lives on possessive determiners; here we deal only with the forms that replace the whole noun phrase.
Two jobs, two forms
Compare the two halves of English: my needs a noun after it, mine does not. Afrikaans keeps the split just as cleanly. The determiner form leans on a following noun; the standalone form is complete on its own.
| Person | Determiner (before a noun) | Standalone (replaces the noun) | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st sing. | my | myne | my / mine |
| 2nd sing. | jou | joune | your / yours |
| 2nd sing. (polite) | u | u s'n | your / yours |
| 3rd masc. | sy | syne | his / his |
| 3rd fem. | haar | hare | her / hers |
| 1st plural | ons | ons s'n | our / ours |
| 2nd plural | julle | julle s'n | your / yours |
| 3rd plural | hulle | hulle s'n | their / theirs |
The singular human persons take a tidy -ne / -e ending: my → myne, jou → joune, sy → syne, haar → hare. The plural persons — and ons — go a different route and tack on s'n: ons s'n, julle s'n, hulle s'n. Hold on to that division; it is the whole story of the page.
The standalone forms in use
The standalone possessive turns up in two everyday places: after a linking verb (is, "is"), and standing in for a noun already mentioned. In both, no noun follows it — that is the whole point.
Dit is myne.
That's mine.
Die fiets is syne.
The bicycle is his.
Hierdie een is joune.
This one is yours.
Watter een is joune?
Which one is yours?
Notice how in Watter een is joune? the noun has already been replaced by een ("one"), and joune completes the thought without needing anything after it. If you tried to use the determiner jou here it would sound like an unfinished sentence — jou is grammatically reaching for a noun that never arrives.
The feminine hare deserves a glance, because English speakers expect "hers" to look like "her" plus an s. In Afrikaans it is haar → hare, with no s anywhere:
My fiets is stukkend, so ek leen Anna se een — hare werk darem.
My bike is broken, so I'm borrowing Anna's — hers at least works.
Sy sê die idee is hare, nie joune nie.
She says the idea is hers, not yours.
The plural forms: ons s'n, julle s'n, hulle s'n
For "ours", "yours" (plural), and "theirs", Afrikaans does not invent a one-word form. It keeps the personal pronoun and adds s'n, written as a separate word with an apostrophe before the n.
Daardie huis is hulle s'n.
That house is theirs.
Die kar is ons s'n, nie die bure s'n nie.
The car is ours, not the neighbours'.
Hierdie tafel is joune en daardie een is julle s'n.
This table is yours and that one is theirs (you-all's).
The apostrophe is not decorative — it is the spelling that marks s'n as the standalone possessive marker, and leaving it out (onsn, hullesn) is simply wrong. Think of it as a frozen leftover of an older syne that attached to the pronoun.
Why s'n ties the two possessive systems together
Here is the connection that most courses never make explicit, and it is genuinely useful. Afrikaans has a second way of showing possession with nouns: the se-possessive, where you put se between owner and thing — Anna se boek ("Anna's book"), die man se hoed ("the man's hat"). See the se-possessive for the full treatment.
Now look again at ons s'n, hulle s'n. The s'n is the standalone counterpart of that very se. Where Anna se expects a noun (Anna se boek), Anna s'n stands alone ("Anna's [one]"):
Is dit jou jas? Nee, dis Anna s'n.
Is that your coat? No, it's Anna's.
Ons motor is ouer as die bure s'n.
Our car is older than the neighbours'.
So the two possessive systems are not separate islands. se + noun and s'n (alone) are the same possessive mechanism in two grammatical positions, and the plural pronouns ons / julle / hulle simply slot into the standalone slot. Once you see s'n as "the standalone se", the apostrophe and the spacing stop feeling arbitrary.
Possessive of a name, standing alone
Because s'n is the standalone se, it works after any name or noun, not just pronouns. This is how you answer "whose is it?" in natural speech.
Wie se beurt is dit? Dis Pieter s'n.
Whose turn is it? It's Pieter's.
Daardie selfoon is nie myne nie — dis my suster s'n.
That phone isn't mine — it's my sister's.
Common mistakes
The errors below are the predictable ones for an English speaker, because English hides the determiner/standalone split inside near-identical words (her / hers) and never uses anything like s'n.
❌ Die boek is my.
Incorrect — the determiner 'my' cannot stand alone; it needs a following noun.
✅ Die boek is myne.
The book is mine.
This is the single most common slip: using the determiner form (my, jou, sy, haar) where the standalone form is required. The rule is mechanical — if no noun follows, use the -ne / -e form or s'n.
❌ Die kar is onsn.
Incorrect — s'n is a separate word with an apostrophe.
✅ Die kar is ons s'n.
The car is ours.
❌ Daardie huis is hulles.
Incorrect — the plural standalone form is hulle s'n, not 'hulles'.
✅ Daardie huis is hulle s'n.
That house is theirs.
❌ Die idee is hares.
Incorrect — 'hers' is hare, with no extra s.
✅ Die idee is hare.
The idea is hers.
❌ Hierdie een is jou.
Incorrect — 'yours' standing alone is joune, not the determiner jou.
✅ Hierdie een is joune.
This one is yours.
Key takeaways
- Afrikaans, like English, splits possessives into determiners (my boek) and standalone forms (die boek is myne). This page is the standalone set.
- Singular persons take an ending: myne, joune, syne, hare. Note hare has no extra s.
- Plural persons (and ons) use the separate word s'n: ons s'n, julle s'n, hulle s'n — always with the apostrophe.
- The standalone form appears after is and wherever a noun has been dropped (Watter een is joune?).
- s'n is the standalone counterpart of the se-possessive — Anna se boek / Anna s'n — which unifies the two possessive systems.
- Never let a determiner (my, jou, haar) stand alone; that is the top English-speaker error.
Now practice Afrikaans
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Start learning Afrikaans→Related Topics
- Possessive Determiners: my, jou, sy, haar, ons, julle, hulleA1 — The invariant Afrikaans words for my, your, his, her, our and their that go in front of a noun.
- The se-Possessive: Jan se boekA1 — How Afrikaans shows possession with the invariant marker se, the everyday equivalent of English 's.
- Subject and Object PronounsA1 — The full Afrikaans personal pronoun set — ek/my, jy/jou, hy/hom, sy/haar and the rest — with subject and object forms and where they go in a sentence.
- The Formal Pronoun uA2 — The polite second-person pronoun u — when to use it instead of jy, why it triggers no special verb form, and how it differs from French vous or German Sie.