The correct graph of possessive pronoun and adjectives

Question

There are conflicting information in many parts of the internet, so I ask the question here. In this video by 'Your German Teacher', the following table is given for possesive articles:

Masculine:

Pronoun	possessive article
ich	mein
du	dein
er	sein
sie	ihr
es	sein
wir	unser
ihr	euer
sie	ihr
Sie	ihr

Feminine and plural:

Pronoun	possessive article
ich	meine
du	deine
er	seine
sie	ihre
es	seine
wir	unsere
ihr	euere
sie	ihre
Sie	ihre

Now, in another German Youtuber named Learn German with Anja, gives give the same lists this video saying they represent possessive pronouns.

Now in this site (can't link picture due to threatened copyright), it seems so the author at least tries to say about the between distinct possessive pronouns and possessive articles. However, she gives two different graphs for each. Now.. all of these information are conflicting each other.

Which is the correct graph for possessive pronouns? And which is the one for possessive adjective?

Answer 1

This Website has a complete version of all the tables shown. The information shown in the tables you listed is not exactly contradictory, but rather one table is more complete than the other.

The way I understand it, Possessivpronomen can act as both a companion for the noun ("My dog") or as a substitute of the noun ("That dog is Mine"). Depending on how the Possessivpronomen is acting, you might need to decline it one way or another.

When a Possessivpronomen acts as a companion for the noun (aka when it acts like my, your, her, etc...) it works similar to an article, which is why it is sometimes called Possessivartikel. Now unlike English, in German the Possessivartikel needs to agree with the noun in gender, number and case, which is why you have these tables to help you out with that.

The first table you listed shows the declensions for Possessivartikel in the nominative case albeit only for ich, du, er, sie, es. The second table shows the same but adds more info: wir, ihr, sie, Sie. The third table you listed shows something different, that one is for Possessivpronomen that substitute the noun (aka when it acts like mine, yours, hers, etc), and it shows the nominative, accusative and dative case.

The link I provided at the beginning has 2 tables, the first one is for Possessivartikel and it's basically a complete table contaning everything that the first two you listed are missing, the second one it's basically the same as the third one you listed but it adds the genitive case.

Answer 2

The term "possessive article" is not used in German grammar. German has 6 definite articles and 6 indefinite articles. All in all 12 articles. Thats all:

• definite articles

  der, die, das, des, dem, den

• indefinite articles

  ein, eine, eines, einer, einem, einen

One could argue that there also is a "null article" that is used as indefinite article for plural words, but that is just an academic way to say that you don't use an article in such a case.

So, all in all 12 articles. And "meine", "dein", "eurer" etc. does not belong to them.

The words you listed are possessive pronouns. And they be used as determiners, but acting as a determiner is the main purpose of articles. And for this reason some people call the super-class that includes the class of articles and the class of pronouns "article words" (Artikelwörter). But a better (and more often used) name is just determiner (Determinativ; Bestimmer).

You can read more about them here:

• English Wikipedia article about Determiner
• German Wikipedia article about Determinativ

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How to use possessive pronouns?

You can use it as a determiner (like an article, although it's not an article):

Deine Jacke ist rot.
^{Your jacket is red.}

But you can also use it just as a pronoun without any article-like behavior:

Diese Jacke ist auffallend rot. Ist das deine?
This jacket is strikingly red. Is this yours?

Another hint that shows that possessive pronouns are not articles is the fact, that you can combine possessive pronouns with articles, but you can't combine two articles:

Ja, diese Jacke ist die meine.
Yes, this jacket is mine.

(Also correct and even more often used: »diese Jacke ist meine«. But »diese Jacke ist die meine« is also possible and correct too.)

Also:

Ich habe das meine getan. = Ich habe meinen Teil getan.
I have done my part.