In two of my previous post, I have already written about possessive pronouns in the nominative case and possessive pronouns in the genitive case. Now, I would like to continue with the third case or dative case.

In general, the dative case shows possession. That is, when you want to use a possessive pronoun in the possessive grammar case you have to add a particular ending to your pronoun – which ending that is depends on the gender of the noun to which the possessive pronoun ‘belongs’. This sounds confusing and complicated? Don’t worry! We will go through this together step by step.

First of all, you need to know the correct forms:

 

	Singular	Plural
1st person	meinem / meiner / meinem (my)	unserem / unserer / unserem (our)
2nd person	deinem / deiner / deinem (your; informal)	eurem / eurer / eurem (your; informal)
	Ihrem / Ihrer / Ihrem (your; formal	Ihrem / Ihrer / Ihrem (your; formal)
3rd person	seinem / seiner / seinem (his; its)	ihrem / ihrer / ihrem (their)
	ihrem / ihrer / ihrem (her)

 

As you can see, there are two different endings you need to know in this grammar case: -em and -er. You add the ending -em to possessive pronouns that refer to masculine or neuter nouns and the ending -er is suffixed to possessive pronouns that refer to feminine nouns.

Examples: Below you find some examples sentences with the German verb “gehören” (to belong). “Gehören” generally requires the dative case, thus, you have to add an appropriate ending to the pronoun. Here it is either -em or -er.

 

 

1. Dieser Terminkalender gehört meinem Chef. (lit. This day planner belongs to my boss.)

The German noun “Chef” (male boss) is a masculine noun. Consequently, you have to add the masculine ending -em to the stem mein (my). The German noun “Terminkalender” (day planner) is also a masculine noun, which is here in the nominative case, thus, the ending -er has to be added to the stem dies (this).

 

2. Diese Tasche gehört meinem Freund. (lit. This bag belongs to my (male) friend.)

The German noun “Freund” (male friend) is masculine. Hence, the correct ending of the pronoun mein (my) is -em.  The German noun “Tasche” (bag) is feminine – here in the nominative case. Hence, the ending -e has to be added to the stem dies (this).

 

3. Dieses Auto gehört meinem Vater. (lit. This car belongs to my father.)

The German noun “Vater” (father) is masculine. Hence, the ending -em has to be added to the pronoun mein (my). The German noun “Auto” (car) is neuter and is in the nominative case. Hence, the ending -es has to be added to the word dies (this).

 

4. Dieser Terminkalender gehört meiner Chefin. (lit. This day planner belongs to my female boss.)

The German noun “Chefin” (female boss) is feminine. Hence, the ending –er has to be added to the stem mein (my). Again, the German noun “Terminkalender” (day planner) is also a masculine noun, which is here in the nominative case, thus, the ending -er has to be added to the stem dies (this).

 

5. Diese Tasche gehört meiner Freundin. (lit. This bag belongs to my female friend.)

The German noun “Freundin” (female friend) is feminine. Hence, you have to add the ending -er to the pronoun mein (my). Again, the German noun “Tasche” (bag) is feminine – here in the nominative case. Hence, the ending -e has to be added to the stem dies (this).

 

6. Dieses Auto gehört meiner Mutter. (lit. This car belongs to my mother.)

The German noun “Mutter” (mother) is feminine. Hence, the ending -er has to be added to the pronoun mein (my). Again, the German noun “Auto” (car) is neuter and is in the nominative case. Hence, the ending -es has to be added to the word dies (this).

 

7. Dieser Teddybär gehört meinem Kind. (lit. This teddy bear belong to my child.)

The German noun “Kind” (child) is neuter. Hence, the ending –em has to be added to the pronoun mein (my). The German noun “Teddybär” (teddy bear) is masculine and in the nominative case. Thus, the ending -er has to be added to the root word dies (this).

 

8. Diese Puppe gehört meinem Kind. (lit. This doll belongs to my child.)

The German noun “Puppe” (doll) is feminine and in the nominative case. Hence, the ending -e has to be added to the word dies (this).

 

9. Dieses Spiel gehört meinem Kind. (lit. This game belongs to my child.)

The German noun “Spiel” (game) is neuter and in the nominative case. Hence, the ending -es has to be added to the word dies (this).