Germanic Languages Comparative Vocabulary: Possessive Adjectives & Pronouns

Learn the possessive adjectives and pronouns in German, Dutch, and Afrikaans

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English	German	Dutch	Afrikaans
my	mein / meine	mijn	my
your (sing, inf)	dein / deine	jouw (je)	jou
your (sing, for)	Ihr / Ihre	uw	u
his	sein / seine	zijn	sy
her	ihr / ihre	haar	haar
its	sein / seine	zijn	sy
our	unser / unsere	ons / onze	ons
your (plur, inf)	euer / eure	jullie (je)	julle (jul)
your (plur, for)	Ihr / Ihre	uw	u
their	ihr / ihre	hun	hulle (hul)

mine	mein / meine	de / het mijne	myne
yours (sing, inf)	dein / deine	de / het jouwe	joune
yours (sing, for)	Ihr / Ihre	de / het uwe	u s'n
his	sein / seine	de / het zijne	syne
hers	ihr / ihre	de / het hare	hare
its	sein / seine	de / het zijne	syne
ours	unser / unsere	de / het onze	ons s'n
yours (plur, inf)	euer / eure	van jou	julle s'n
yours (plur, for)	Ihr / Ihre	de / het uwe	u s'n
theirs	ihr / ihre	de / het hunne	hulle s'n

German possessive adjectives must change according to gender, number and case. The forms given above are masculine and neuter nominative / feminine and plural nominative.

In Dutch, ons is used with singular neuter nouns, and onze is used with singular common nouns and all plural nouns. The words in parentheses in Dutch and Afrikaans are the unstressed forms found in informal speech and writing.

Notice that the definite article is required for Dutch possessive pronouns and that there is no possessive pronoun corresponding to the adjective jullie. The phrase van jou is used instead (literally, of you).