Possessive determiners are the words for my, your, his, her, our, their — the words that tell you who something belongs to. In Danish they fall into two groups: a small set that changes shape to agree with the noun (min/mit/mine and friends) and a larger set that never changes at all (hans, hendes, vores...). The trick that trips up every English speaker is what the agreeing ones agree with: not the owner, but the thing owned. This page establishes all the forms. The separate but related question of when to choose sin over hans is handled on its own sin vs hans page — here we focus on the forms themselves.
The agreement rule: look at the possessed noun
When a possessive agrees, it agrees with the gender and number of the noun right after it. This is the opposite of the English instinct. In English, his vs her depends on the owner's gender. In Danish, min vs mit vs mine depends on whether the thing owned is common gender, neuter, or plural.
The three agreeing sets: min, din, sin
These three each have a common form, a neuter form, and a plural form:
| Meaning | Common (en-word) | Neuter (et-word) | Plural |
|---|---|---|---|
| my | min | mit | mine |
| your (sg.) | din | dit | dine |
| his/her/its own (reflexive) | sin | sit | sine |
The pattern is perfectly regular: the common form ends in -n, the neuter swaps it for -t, and the plural ends in -e. Watch the same noun gender pull each set into the same column:
Det er min bil, din cykel og hans hund.
That's my car, your bicycle and his dog.
Mit hus ligger ved siden af dit hus.
My house is next to your house.
Hun elsker sine børn over alt på jorden.
She loves her children more than anything on earth.
Notice in the last example that sine is plural because børn ("children") is plural — even though the owner, "she," is singular. The owner's number and gender are irrelevant.
The invariable set: hans, hendes, vores, jeres, deres
The remaining possessives have one form only. They never agree with anything, so you simply attach them and move on:
| Meaning | Form (never changes) |
|---|---|
| his | hans |
| her | hendes |
| its (common-gender thing) | dens |
| its (neuter thing) | dets |
| our | vores |
| your (plural) | jeres |
| their | deres |
Most of these are transparently built from a pronoun plus a genitive -s (han → hans, hun → hendes, de → deres), which is why they behave like fixed words rather than agreeing adjectives.
Hans bil, hans hus og hans børn — alt sammen er nyt.
His car, his house and his children — all of it is new.
Vores lejlighed er lille, men jeres er endnu mindre.
Our apartment is small, but yours is even smaller.
Børnene kan ikke finde deres sko nogen steder.
The children can't find their shoes anywhere.
In the hans example, the form stays identical across a common noun, a neuter noun, and a plural noun. That is the whole point: hans/hendes/deres simply don't move.
Why English speakers get this backwards
English possessives carry information about the owner: his book vs her book tells you the owner's gender, and the word stays the same no matter what the book is. So an English speaker reaching for "my" wants a single fixed word and is startled that min has to become mit or mine. The mental switch you need: stop looking at the owner; look at the noun you're about to say. Is it an en-word, an et-word, or plural? That — and only that — decides min/mit/mine. The hans/hendes set happens to behave the English way (fixed form, owner-marked), which is exactly why beginners over-generalise and try to keep min fixed too.
Where the possessive sits
Like English, the possessive goes before the noun and replaces the article — you never say the my car. If there's an adjective, the possessive comes first, then the adjective, then the noun, and the adjective takes its plain (definite) ending:
min gamle cykel
my old bicycle
dine nye sko
your new shoes
There is one common alternative word order, especially in speech and with body parts or close relations: Danish can put the possessive after a definite noun, giving a slightly warmer or more colloquial feel.
mor min
my mum (affectionate, informal)
bilen din
your car (colloquial)
The neutral, always-safe order is the front position (min mor, din bil). Treat the post-noun version as something to recognise rather than something you must produce.
A note on dens and dets
When the owner is a thing rather than a person — "its tail," "its colour" — Danish picks dens or dets to match the owner's gender (common → dens, neuter → dets). This is the one place where the owner's gender matters at all, and it surprises learners precisely because everywhere else the owner is ignored. One caution: dens/dets are correct only when the owner is not the subject of the same clause — that is, when "it" points to something already mentioned, not to the subject doing the action.
Jeg fandt en fugl; dens ene vinge var brækket.
I found a bird; one of its wings was broken. (bird = common gender → dens)
Vi købte huset på trods af dets stand.
We bought the house despite its condition. (house = neuter → dets)
The moment the owner is the subject of the clause — "the dog wagged its own tail" — Danish switches to the reflexive sin/sit/sine instead (hunden logrede med sin hale, not dens hale). Getting that contrast right is a topic of its own, on the sin vs hans page.
Common Mistakes
❌ min hus
Incorrect — hus is neuter, so the possessive must agree as mit.
✅ mit hus
my house
❌ min børn
Incorrect — børn is plural, so use the plural form mine.
✅ mine børn
my children
❌ hanses bil
Incorrect — hans is already the possessive; you don't add another -s, and it never inflects.
✅ hans bil
his car
❌ Hun elsker sine mand.
Incorrect — mand is common-gender singular, so the form is sin, not sine.
✅ Hun elsker sin mand.
She loves her husband.
❌ det min bil
Incorrect — the possessive replaces the article; you don't add det/den in front.
✅ min bil
my car
Key Takeaways
- min/din/sin each have three forms — common (-n), neuter (-t), plural (-e).
- They agree with the possessed noun, never with the owner.
- hans, hendes, dens, dets, vores, jeres, deres never change.
- The possessive replaces the article — no the and no den/det alongside it.
- Choosing sin vs hans/hendes is a separate question covered on its own page.
Now practice Danish
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Start learning Danish→Related Topics
- Danish Determiners: An OverviewA1 — A map of the little words that introduce Danish nouns — articles, demonstratives, possessives, and quantifiers — and the agreement system that ties them together.
- Sin/Sit/Sine vs Hans/Hendes/DeresB2 — The reflexive possessive sin/sit/sine points back to the clause subject; hans/hendes/deres point to someone else — a meaning switch, not a style choice.
- Possessive Pronouns (Standalone)B1 — Min, mit, mine and friends used on their own — Den er min, Huset er mit, Bøgerne er mine — where agreement tracks the referent's gender and number, plus the standalone genitive.
- Grammatical Gender: En-words vs Et-wordsA1 — Danish has two genders — common (en-words) and neuter (et-words). Gender is mostly unpredictable, must be learned with each noun, and controls articles, definite suffixes, adjectives, and pronouns.
- The Reflexive Pronoun SigA2 — Danish sig is the 3rd-person reflexive (singular and plural) used when the object refers back to the subject; learn the full mig/dig/sig/os/jer set, sig selv vs hinanden, and the inherently reflexive verbs.