Possessive pronouns (meiner, meins, meine)

Claiming what is yours

Just as in English you say "mine" instead of "my coffee," you can drop the noun in German and use a standalone possessive pronoun. When a possessive pronoun replaces a noun, it takes an ending that matches the gender and case of the noun being replaced.

Masculine nouns

When replacing a masculine noun in the nominative case (such as when it is the subject or follows the verb sein), add -er to the possessive root (meiner, deiner, seiner, unserer).

Neuter nouns

For neuter nouns, add -s to the possessive root (meins, deins, seins, unseres). Notice that standalone neuter pronouns take this ending, whereas the standard possessive articles placed directly in front of nouns do not (mein Handtuch vs. meins).

Feminine nouns

For feminine nouns, the standalone pronoun ends in -e (meine, deine, seine, unsere). These forms look exactly like the standard possessive articles you already know.

Summary table

Here is a quick overview of the standalone possessive pronouns in the nominative case:

Life in a flatshare

Standalone possessive pronouns are especially useful when resolving disputes in a flatshare, where sharing spaces means things are easily mixed up!