Personal Pronouns and Possessives
Similar to how articles change form by different cases, pronouns and possessives also change form. Lets see how each of them look.
Personal Pronouns
Pronouns are used in place of nouns to avoid repitition. These pronouns in Nominative, Accusative and Dative are shown in the below table. As for Genitive, we have seen that Genitive is used to indicate possession. And possessives do just that. So what’s the difference? Apparently, Genitive could have had been used for other things as well. And even though Possessives and Pronouns in Genitive case mean the same, they are different. Look at this for more info: Genitive vs Possessive
| Nominative | Dative | Accusative | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| ich | mir | mich | I, to me, me |
| du | dir | dich | you, to you, you(Singular, informal address) |
| Sie | Ihnen | Sie | you, to you, you (Singular, formal address) |
| er | ihm | ihn | he, to him, him |
| sie | ihr | sie | she, to her, her |
| es | Ihm | es | it, to it, it |
| wir | uns | uns | us, to us, us |
| ihr | euch | euch | you, to you, you (Plural, informal address) |
| Sie | Ihnen | Sie | you, to you, you (Plural, formal address) |
| sie | ihnen | sie | them, to them, them |
Possessives
Possessive adjectives show belonging or ownership. There are different possessives for each personal pronoun. Also these possessives change by case as well as gender. First, lets see possessives for all pronouns in Nominative form.
| Pronoun | Nominative form | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| ich | mein | mine |
| du | dein | yours (Singular informal address) |
| Sie | Ihr | yours (Singular formal address) |
| er | sein | his |
| sie | ihr | her |
| es | sein | its |
| wir | unser | ours |
| ihr | euer | yours (Plural informal address) |
| Sie | Ihr | yours (Plural formal address) |
| sie | ihr | theirs |
Possessive ‘mein’ forms in different cases
| Gender | Nominative | Genitive | Dative | Accusative |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masculine | mein | meines | meinem | meinen |
| Feminine | meine | meiner | meiner | meine |
| Neuter | mein | meines | meinem | mein |
| Plural | meine | meiner | meienen | meine |