My and Your: First Possessives

"My" and "your" are among the very first words you'll want in any language — Это моя́ су́мка ("That's my bag"), Как твоё и́мя? ("What's your name?"). In Russian they look harder than in English at first glance, because where English has one fixed word my, Russian has four shapes of "my" (мой, моя́, моё, мои́) and four of "your." But there is exactly one rule behind all of them, and once it clicks you can produce every form correctly: a Russian possessive agrees with the noun it sits in front of — the thing that is owned — in gender and number. It does not care who the owner is. This page gives you мой, твой, and ваш in their everyday nominative shapes; the full six-case declension comes later on the possessive pronoun forms page.

The forms: мой, твой, ваш

There are two words for "your" because Russian distinguishes the informal you (one person you're close to — a friend, a child, a family member) from the formal/plural you (a stranger, an older person, a boss, or several people). The informal "your" is твой; the formal/plural "your" is ваш.

Each possessive has four nominative forms, one for each gender of the owned noun, plus one for the plural:

Notice how regular this is. The four endings are essentially the same set across all three words: a bare consonant for masculine (мой, твой, ваш), -а/-я for feminine (моя́, ва́ша), -о/-е for neuter (моё, ва́ше), and -и for plural (мои́, ва́ши) — the very same gender markers you already know from nouns. Two stress notes: мой, твой, ваш are single syllables and take no stress mark; in the мой/твой column the stress jumps onto the ending (моя́, моё, мои́), while in ваш it stays on the stem (ва́ша, ва́ше, ва́ши).

The one rule: match the thing, not the owner

This is where English speakers stumble, so it's worth stating plainly. In English, the shape of "my" depends on who the owner is — my (me), your (you), his (a man), her (a woman). The owned object plays no role: it's my book, my car, my windows — my never changes.

Russian flips this. The owner is already fixed (мой always means my, твой always means your), so the form instead agrees with the noun that follows it — its gender and number:

So the same English "my" turns into four different Russian words purely because the nouns differ in gender and number. Get the gender of the noun right and the possessive falls into place automatically.

Everyday uses

In introductions, descriptions, and questions, these possessives are everywhere. A few patterns you'll use from day one:

Notice that Russian does not use a linking verb here: Это моя́ кни́га is literally "This my book" — there is no is. In the present tense Russian normally drops "to be," so a possessive plus a noun is already a complete statement.

твой or ваш? Choosing the right "your"

Choosing between твой and ваш is a matter of social register, exactly like the choice between the pronouns ты and вы:

• твой — one person you address informally: a friend, a peer, a child, a close relative.
• ваш — (a) one person you address politely (a stranger, an elder, a customer, an official), or (b) more than one person, regardless of closeness.

When in doubt with an adult you don't know well, use ваш — it's the safer, more respectful choice, just as вы is.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• Four shapes each: мой/моя́/моё/мои́ ("my") and твой/твоя́/твоё/твои́ ("your" informal); ва́ш set is ваш/ва́ша/ва́ше/ва́ши ("your" formal/plural).
• Agreement runs on the owned noun, not the owner — choose the form by the gender and number of the noun that follows: masculine → мой, feminine → моя́, neuter → моё, plural → мои́.
• No "to be" needed: Это моя́ кни́га = "This is my book."
• Two "yours": твой for one familiar person; ваш for politeness or for more than one person — the same logic as ты vs вы.
• These are just the nominative forms. Possessives also change for case (в моём до́ме "in my house"), covered on the full forms page; for "my own / one's own," see свой.