Why would the pronouns in this sentence have different suffixes?

Question

Duolingo asked me to translate the following: "is that your thigh or mine?"

I came back with "Ist das dein Oberschenkel oder mein?"

It corrected me with "Ist das dein Oberschenkel oder meiner?"

Since both possessive pronouns are referring to the same noun shouldn't their endings agree?

Related (in German): german.stackexchange.com/questions/14853/… — chirlu, Dec 30, 2015 at 12:38

Hubert Schölnast · Accepted Answer · 2015-12-31 05:39:13Z

8

In English you can say:

Is that your thigh or my thigh?

Is that your thigh or mine?

Is that yours or mine?

And you translate those sentences into German this way:

Ist das dein Oberschenkel oder mein Oberschenkel?

Ist das dein Oberschenkel oder meiner?

Ist das deiner oder meiner?

So you have this pairs:

your - dein
yours - deiner
my - mein
mine - meiner

answered Dec 30, 2015 at 12:47

Hubert Schölnast

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1

Oberschenkel is masculine and the genitive case would be 'meines'. I think 'meiner' is used in this case as nominative case of the possessive pronoun.
– Alberto Solano
Dec 30, 2015 at 18:21
Wenn ich Wikipedia korrekt verstehe, sind mein und dein Possessivartikel (englisch possessive articles) während nur meiner und deiner als Possessivpronomen (possessive pronouns) zählen. So oder so, der Genitiv wäre meines in beiden Fällen.
– Jan
Dec 30, 2015 at 21:12

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