שלי, שלך, שלו: של with Pronoun Endings | Hebrew Grammar

Put a pronoun in the owner slot of a של phrase and it does not stay a separate word: it fuses onto של as an ending. הספר שלי, הדירה שלנו, האוטו שלהם. The ten forms themselves are laid out cell by cell on possessive pronouns — what this page is for is what that table does not tell you, starting with the reason you have less to memorise than you think.

You already know these endings

They are not של's endings. They are Hebrew's endings, the same set that every everyday preposition takes, and once you have them from one word you have them from all of them.

Ending	של	ל־ to	ב־ in	אצל at…'s	בשביל for
־ִי me	שלי	לי	בי	אצלי	בשבילי
־ְךָ you (m. sg.)	שלך	לך	בך	אצלך	בשבילך
־וֹ him	שלו	לו	בו	אצלו	בשבילו
־ָהּ her	שלה	לה	בה	אצלה	בשבילה

המפתחות שלך אצלי, אני אחזיר לך אותם בערב.

hamaftekhót shelkhá etslí, aní akhzír lekhá otám ba'érev

I've got your keys — I'll bring them back to you this evening. (to a man: the same ־ְךָ ending on של and on ל, and ־ִי on אצל)

One honest caveat so the pattern does not mislead you later: one set of endings, but two families of preposition, and they do not attach them quite identically. The gap is widest in the third-person plural — של, ל and ב take the long ending שלהם, להם, בהם while אצל and בשביל take a short one, אצלם and בשבילם — and everywhere else it is only a vowel: שֶׁלָּנוּ shelánu and לָנוּ lánu against אֶצְלֵנוּ etslénu and בִּשְׁבִילֵנוּ bishvilénu. The full map of which preposition belongs to which family, and the one-glance diagnostic for telling them apart, is on prepositions take pronoun endings.

The mistake you will never see yourself make

שלך is one spelling and two words. Said to a man it is shelkhá; said to a woman it is shelákh. Unpointed Hebrew writes both as שלך, so if you address a woman with the masculine form, nothing on the page changes, nothing gets underlined, and no teacher marking your homework can even tell. You will only ever hear about it if someone is kind enough to mention it, and mostly nobody is.

יוסי, האופניים האלה שלך? הם חוסמים את הכניסה.

yósi, ha'ofanáyim ha'éle shelkhá? hem khosmím et haknisá

Yossi, is this your bike? It's blocking the entrance. (to a man — shelkhá, with no vowel on the ל)

דנה, הצעיף הזה שלך? מצאתי אותו על המדרגות.

dána, hatsa'íf hazé shelákh? matsáti otó al hamadregót

Dana, is this scarf yours? I found it on the stairs. (to a woman — shelákh, and the three written letters are identical to the sentence above)

💡

Fix this once and it fixes six words at a stroke, because the ambiguity is not about של at all — it is about the ending. לך, בך, אצלך, בשבילך, אותך, איתך are every one of them a single spelling covering -khá and -ákh. Get into the habit of choosing the ending from the person in front of you rather than from the page, and all of them come right together.

Where the possessive sits in a longer phrase

Load the noun up with an adjective and the order is fixed: noun, adjective, possessive. The של phrase goes at the very end, after everything else describing the noun.

The article behaves exactly as it does anywhere else — it repeats on the adjective, and it never appears on the של phrase.

השכנים החדשים שלנו עושים שיפוץ כבר חודשיים.

hashkhením hakhadashím shelánu osím shipúts kvar khodsháyim

Our new neighbours have had the builders in for two months. (two ה's — one on the noun, one on the adjective — and none on שלנו)

הטלפון הישן שלי עדיין עובד יותר טוב מהחדש.

hatélefon hayashán shelí adáyin ovéd yotér tov mehekhadásh

My old phone still works better than the new one.

"My" and "mine" are the same word

English has two possessive systems and switches between them without telling you: my before a noun, mine standing alone, of mine after one. Hebrew has one word for all three jobs.

English	Hebrew
my notebook	המחברת שלי
mine is green	שלי ירוקה
a friend of mine	חבר שלי

זאת המחברת שלי? לא, שלי ירוקה.

zot hamakhbéret shelí? lo, shelí yeruká

Is that my notebook? No, mine's green. (the same שלי in both halves — Hebrew makes no adjective-versus-pronoun distinction here)

Notice what the standalone form does with agreement: שלי ירוקה is feminine because מחברת is, even though the speaker is not. של agrees with the owner and the adjective agrees with the thing; they are two independent decisions. Standing alone like this, שלי can take prepositions of its own — בשלי, את שלו — and that use is developed on possessive pronouns.

שלכן and שלהן

Both exist, both are correct, and in conversation you will hear שלכם and שלהם covering all-female groups as well. That is not carelessness — it is what most Israelis say, including people who could recite the rule. Write the feminine forms; do not be startled when nobody speaks them.

בנות, החדר שלכן בקומה השנייה.

banót, hakhéder shelakhén bakomá hashniyá

Girls, your room is on the second floor. (careful, and the form to write)

בנות, החדר שלכם בקומה השנייה, תעלו במעלית.

banót, hakhéder shelakhém bakomá hashniyá, ta'alú bama'alít

Girls, your room is on the second floor — take the lift. (the same sentence as an Israeli would actually say it)

Common Mistakes

1. The masculine form to a woman. The one error on this page that you cannot catch by proofreading, because the writing is identical.

❌ איפה הכרטיס שלך?

éifo hakartís shelkhá? — asked of a woman

Incorrect as a reading — to a woman these letters are שֶׁלָּךְ shelákh. The spelling cannot tell you which one to say; only the person you are speaking to can.

✅ רותי, הכרטיס שלך בתיק שלי, אל תדאגי.

rúti, hakartís shelákh batík shelí, al tid'agí

Ruti, your ticket's in my bag, don't worry.

2. Putting the possessive in front. English my keys has the possessive first, and the habit survives long after you know the rule.

❌ שלי המפתחות

Incorrect as 'my keys' — the possessive follows its noun: המפתחות שלי. Hebrew has no slot in front of the noun for a possessive at all.

✅ המפתחות שלי נשארו בדלת כל הלילה.

hamaftekhót shelí nish'arú badélet kol haláyla

My keys were left in the door all night.

3. Marking the relation twice. A friend of mine uses two possessive markers in English — of and mine — and both of them translate to של, so learners write it twice.

❌ חבר של שלי

Incorrect as 'a friend of mine' — English marks the relation twice, Hebrew once: חבר שלי. There is no של של in the language.

✅ חבר שלי צילם את החתונה ולא לקח כסף.

khavér shelí tsilém et hakhatuná veló lakákh késef

A friend of mine shot the wedding and wouldn't take any money.

4. Freezing on שלך. It is the first form most people learn, and it then gets used for a room full of people or for a group in the third person.

❌ ילדים, שימו את התיקים שלך ליד הדלת

Incorrect — the people addressed are plural, so the possessive is שלכם: שימו את התיקים שלכם ליד הדלת.

✅ ילדים, שימו את התיקים שלכם ליד הדלת.

yeladím, símu et hatikím shelakhém leyád hadélet

Kids, put your bags by the door.

Key Takeaways

The endings on של are the standard Hebrew preposition endings: שלי / לי / בי / אצלי / בשבילי all share one set. Learn it once.
The families split most audibly in the third-person plural: שלהם, להם, בהם against אצלם, בשבילם — and elsewhere by a single vowel, שֶׁלָּנוּ against אֶצְלֵנוּ.
שלך is one spelling and two words — shelkhá to a man, shelákh to a woman — and the same ambiguity runs through לך, בך, אצלך, בשבילך, אותך, איתך.
Order in a full phrase: noun, adjective, possessive — השכנים החדשים שלנו. The article repeats on the adjective and never touches the של phrase.
"My" and "mine" are the same word. המחברת שלי, שלי ירוקה, חבר שלי — and standing alone, שלי takes the gender of the thing owned, not of the speaker.
שלכן and שלהן are correct and rarely spoken; ordinary conversation uses שלכם and שלהם for all-female groups too.

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