Determiners:Possessivpronomen Als Artikel - Akkusativ
Possessive pronouns are a type of determiner, similar in their function to definite and indefinite articles.
The accusative case is used to describe the direct object of a sentence. The direct object is the immediate recipient of an action or event:
| Schneewittchens Vater verliert seine Frau - und heiratet eine böse Königin! | Snow White's father loses his wife - and marries an evil queen! |
| Die böse Königin fragt ihren Spiegel jeden Tag: "Spieglein, Spieglein an der Wand, wer ist die Schönste im ganzen Land?" | The evil queen, asks her mirror every day: "Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the prettiest one of all?" |
Frau and Spiegel are who the king married and, what the queen asks; therefore, they need to be preceded by an accusative possessive determiner.
Possessive determiners in the accusative case
There are no 'basic' accusative forms of the possessive determiners, since the ending is influenced by the gender of the noun. So, here is the overview of what does happen:
| masculine noun follows (-en suffix) |
feminine noun follows (-e suffix) |
neuter noun follows (no visible suffix) |
plural noun follows (-e suffix) |
| meinen Spiegel | meine Frau | mein Herz | meine Zwerge |
| deinen Spiegel | deine Frau | dein Herz | deine Zwerge |
| seinen Spiegel | seine Frau | sein Herz | seine Zwerge |
| ihren Spiegel | ihre Frau | ihr Herz | ihre Zwerge |
| seinen Spiegel | seine Frau | sein Herz | seine Zwerge |
| uns(e)ren Spiegel | uns(e)re Frau | unser Herz | uns(e)re Zwerge |
| eu(e)ren Spiegel | eu(e)re Frau | euer Herz | eu(e)re Zwerge |
| ihren Spiegel | ihre Frau | ihr Herz | ihre Zwerge |
| Ihren Spiegel | Ihre Frau | Ihr Herz | Ihre Zwerge |
Yes! Only the determiners that are followed by masculine nouns change their ending; the others look exactly the same as the possessive determiners in the nominative.
If unser or euer precedes feminine or plural nouns, or masculine nouns in the accusative, the original -e- may be left out.
So, to review and expand, here are the steps to happy (and accurate) possessive determiners:
Step 1: Choose the correct possessive determiner based on who owns X (mein, dein, sein, etc.).
Step 2: Choose the correct ending, based on the gender, number and case of the noun that is being owned.
Example: Schneewittchens Vater verliert seine Frau.
Step 1: Schneewittchens Vater (masculine, singular => sein)
Step 2: die Frau (feminine, singular, accusative => -e suffix)
Result: seine Frau
Try to map these two steps onto the following examples:
| Die Königin ruft ihren Jäger zu sich. | The queen calls her hunter to her. |
| Er muss ihre Stieftochter töten und der Königin ihre Lunge und ihre Leber bringen! | He must kill her stepdaughter, and bring the queen her lungs and liver! |
| Der Jäger hasst seine neue Aufgabe, aber was kann er tun? Er braucht seinen Job! | The hunter hates his new task, but what can he do? He needs his job! |
And the answers are ...
| die Königin (feminine, singular => ihr) +
der Jäger (masculine, singular, accusative => -en suffix) => ihren Jäger |
| die Königin (femininie, singular => ihr) +
die Stieftochter (feminine, singular, accusative => -e suffix) => ihre Stieftochter |
| die Stieftochter (feminine, singular => ihr) +
die Lunge (feminine, singular, accusative => -e suffix) => ihre Lunge |
| die Stieftochter (feminine, singular => ihr) +
die Leber (feminine, singular, accusative => -e suffix) => ihre Leber |
| der Jäger (masculine, singular => sein) +
die Aufgabe (feminnie, singular, accusative => -e suffix) => seine Aufgabe |
| der Jäger (masculine, singular => sein) +
der Job (masculine, singular, accusative => -en suffix) => seinen Job |
Accusative prepositions and the possessive determiners
You also use accusative possessive determiners following certain prepositions: durch, für, gegen, ohne, and um (as well as with two-way prepositions).
| der Jäger | Frau Königin, was haben Sie gegen Ihre Tochter? | Your Highness, what do you have against your daughter? |
| die Königin | Du meinst meine Stieftochter? Sie ist gefährlich für mein Ego ... ich meine ... für meine seelische Gesundheit! | You mean my stepdaughter? She is dangerous for my ego ... I mean ... for my mental health! |
| der Jäger | Sie kennen doch Ihren Mann! Er kann ohne seine Tochter nicht überleben! | You know your husband, though! He won't be able to survive without his daughter! |
| die Königin | Tja, schade. Aber ich muss meinen Ruf als böse Königin schützen! | Ah, that's too bad. But I must protect my reputation as evil queen! |
Possessive pronouns
Possessive determiners can replace an entire noun phrase; in this case, they become possessive pronouns (such as the English examples: Have you seen my mirror? It's broken, here, take mine!). Below is an example set with mein/meiner.
Bad omen, the queen lost her mirror and now can't admire her exquisite beauty ... Snow White, not knowing just how evil her stepmother is, offers her help. So, she's quite shocked later in the forest when she hears from the hunter that the evil queen wants the hunter to cut out her heart and even her lungs! The hunter tries to get Snow White to have a little empathy with him, with little success, as you might imagine!
| masculine | Ich habe meinen Spiegel verloren. | Sie können meinen benutzen! | You can use mine! |
| feminine | Ich will meine Schönheit bewundern! | Sie könnten meine bewundern! | You could admire mine! |
| neuter | Sie will mein Herz? | Sie will auch meines! | She wants mine too! |
| plural | Und sie will meine Lunge? | Meine auch ... Oh, eigentlich nicht, nur deine! | Mine too ... Oh, actually no, only yours! |
The endings on the possessive pronouns are the same as der-words. In spoken language, the neuter endings are -s instead of -es for nominative and accusative (e.g., meins, deins, seins, unsers, euers, etc.).
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