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Ich wasche mein Auto

Ich sehe meine Kinder

I get that meine is used for plural accusative form

But why is mein correct for first sentence? Shouldn't it be meinen instead?

I am learning using table in https://www.deutsch-lernen.com/learn-german-online/beginners/lesson_6.php

I am not getting the difference between Possessivpronomen I and Possessivpronomen II

Please help.

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    One should have to register to get access to the hyperlinked table - for me too inconvenient .
    – Ralf Joerres
    Commented Apr 8, 2020 at 10:27

2 Answers 2

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Here is a table with the correct forms of mein:

(Note that Auto is not male, not female, but neuter: das Auto)

Konjugationstabelle "mein"

You find similar tables for dein, sein, euer etc. here: http://longua.org/possessivartikel-ubersicht.php

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  • Thank you. If I decide to use 'Dein' or 'unser' instead, I would just plug in those words instead of mein right?
    – Kevin Eleven
    Commented Apr 8, 2020 at 8:00
  • @KevinEleven yes, that is correct. If I'm not mistaken, the suffix (e.g. nothing, "-e", "-er", "-en", ...) after the word root (e.g. "mein") is the same for all possessive pronouns (mein, dein, sein/ihr, unser, euer, ihr).
    – PixelMaster
    Commented Apr 8, 2020 at 9:27
  • @PixleMaster: I think it is different with euer. Whenever completed by an ending it must be 'eur', only without termination it is 'euer'. In fact, you can say 'euere', 'eueren' and so on, but in my area (Ruhrgebiet) nobody will talk this way, it will always be 'eure', 'euren' ...
    – Ralf Joerres
    Commented Apr 8, 2020 at 10:24
  • @RalfJoerres I would say "eure" as well, but "euere" is also correct. See also duden.de/rechtschreibung/euer_Anrede_wessen
    – PixelMaster
    Commented Apr 8, 2020 at 19:12
  • I never heard of euere and despite it being mentioned in Duden, I think the majority of people will deem it wrong.
    – infinitezero
    Commented Apr 9, 2020 at 11:21
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The reason why "mein" is correct in your example is the 'gender' of the word "Auto". More specifically, "mein" is for words that have would have the "das" article, while "meine" is female and used for words that would have the "die" article. For words with the male "der" article, "meinen" would be used here.

The same is basically true in the plural form, except words in the plural form usually use the female article "die" (in fact, I can't think of an example where that's not the case).

More examples:

  • Ich wasche mein T-Shirt (das T-Shirt)
  • Ich putze mein Haus (das Haus)
  • Ich wasche mein Trinkglas (das Glas)
  • Ich sehe mein Kind (das Kind)
  • Ich sehe meine Kinder (die Kinder, plural)
  • Ich sehe meine Tochter (die Tochter)
  • Ich wasche meine Hose (die Hose)
  • Ich wasche meine Socken (die Socken, plural)
  • Ich wasche meine Mütze (die Mütze)
  • Ich putze meine Wohnung (die Wohnung)
  • Ich putze meinen Herd (der Herd)
  • Ich putze meinen XBox-Controller (der Controller)
  • Ich sehe meinen Sohn (der Sohn)
  • Ich sehe meinen Hund (der Hund)
  • Ich wasche meinen Pfannenwender (der Pfannenwender)
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  • Thank you. But in 'Wir sehen schon unser Haus' 'unser' is used instead of 'mein' I am assuming this is because 'Wir' is used in the sentence, but does that mean I would only use mein, meinem, meines, meinen ... etc only when I use 'ich'? In other words, in the link I posted, would I use table 2 and table 3 only when using ich?
    – Kevin Eleven
    Commented Apr 8, 2020 at 7:24
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    It doesn't matter, if it is "wir sehen..." or "ich sehe...": If the house is considered belonging to me directly and nobody else, then it is "mein Haus". If it is considered belonging to the whole family (more common), then it is "unser Haus". So all these cases are possible and valid (depending on context): Ich sehe unser Haus, Ich sehe mein Haus, Wir sehen unser Haus, Wir sehen mein Haus
    – Tode
    Commented Apr 8, 2020 at 8:35
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    @KevinEleven as Torsten explained, "mein" (or "dein", "sein", "ihr", "unser", "euer", "ihr") are used to express possession of something. The english equivalents are "my", "your", "his", "her", "our", "your" and "their". The difference is that in german, there are different articles ("der", "die", "das"), which lead to the possessive pronoun being conjugated.
    – PixelMaster
    Commented Apr 8, 2020 at 9:21

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