Questions tagged [possessive]
Questions on the grammar of indicating a possessive relationship, such as the genetive, possessive pronouns, “von”, or “dem … sein” constructions.
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Possessive adjective used predicatively?
Is it correct to say that possessive adjective could never be used predicatively? That is, it could only be used attributively as complement of a head noun?
I ask this because I could not find any ...
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German possessive "s" or alternate Genitive construction?
On Steam today, there is a sale for Batman games. The sale headline is:
Feiern Sie Bruce Waynes Geburtstag
What is the "s" on "Waynes"? My assumption is that it is "der ...
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Vielen Dank für Ihr Verständnis und (Ihre) Unterstützung?
Ist es grammatikalisch und stilistisch korrekt, in so einem Satz den Possessivartikel wegzulassen, auch wenn es sich hier um Nomen mit verschiedenen Geschlechtern handelt?
Also:
Vielen Dank für Ihr ...
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How do I form the possessive with more than one proper name?
What's the correct way to put more than one name in the possessive? I want to talk about a wedding between Felix and Mareike. Are any of these correct?
Felixs und Mareikes Hochzeit
Felix' und ...
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Incorrect declension of possessive adjectives in DW manuscript?
In this text from DW, I noticed this sentence:
Deshalb fügen sich die meisten in ihr Leid an dieser Kreuzung, auch wenn den wenigsten einleuchtet, warum ihnen die Stadt das antut.
To my knowledge, ...
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Is this sentence grammatically correct?
Peters Sohns Lieblingstier ist die Giraffe
I'm studying with Duolingo, and from what I understand so far, the possessive form can be expressed with either "von" or "'s", and the ...
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The correct graph of possessive pronoun and adjectives
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:
...
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"Dein" ist mein ganzes Herz
Ich wollte fragen wie solche Formulierungen heißen: "Dein ist mein ganzes Herz," "Denn dein ist das Reich und die Kraft ..."
Ich verstehe die Sätze (Dein Herz, dein Reich statt dem ...
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Genitiv mit Possessivartikel
Sehen Sie sich bitte diese Sätze an:
Er hat in sein Vaters Bäckerei gearbeitet.
Er hat in seiner Vaters Bäckerei gearbeitet.
Welcher Satz ist richtig? Können Sie bitte ein bisschen erzählen? Ich ...
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Which possessive pronoun should follow 'Kind' (female) or 'Mädchen' - feminine or neuter? Das Mädchen hat ihren (oder seinen) Hut verloren? [duplicate]
Older texts would use the appropriate grammatical gender for possessive pronouns, eg,
'Das Weib hat seinen Hut verloren.'
Is this still the best usage, or should we now use the natural gender, ie,
'...
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Masculine possessive adjectives ending in nominative
I am really confused if masculine nouns in nominative should take the -(e)r ending or not. Or when.
This article gives examples in nominative both with and without -er ending:
https://www.fluentu....
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ihr vs sein (possessive pronouns) [closed]
I have a simple question concerning the following sentences:
Die Katze trinkt ihr Wasser.
and
Der Hund trinkt sein Wasser.
I would like to get a better understanding as to why "ihr" and "sein" ...
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Did German have a "possessive apostrophe"?
There is an old question asking whether contemporary German uses the apostrophe to mark possessive constructions in a way similar to contemporary English – or at least, that's the issue that all the ...
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Is this sentence from the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung correct?
The two paragraphs below come from today’s online edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (emphasis mine):
Im Streit um den Brexit liegen die Nerven blank: Der britische
Außenminister ...
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Could someone explain how to form the genitive partitive in German? (Einer meiner wording)
I know that the translation to "one of my friends" is always formed by "ein-" as the indefinite pronoun meaning "one" and a possessive pronoun whatsoever in the genitive. I couldn't find however much ...
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How do you conjugate adjectives that follow a possessive adjective?
If two adjectives are used to describe a noun they both will take the same case.
Ich habe den guten neuen Film gesehen
If the first of the adjectives is a possessive adjective, what declension ...
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Possessivform in "Philippinens Präsident braucht eine psychiatrische Untersuchung"
Ist der Titel des folgenden FAZ.net-Artikels korrektes Deutsch?
Philippinens Präsident braucht eine psychiatrische Untersuchung
Wenn nein, haben "die Philippinen" eine Possessivform wie "Deutschland"...
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Inflection of possessive noun phrases used as determiners
In order to express a possessive relationship in German between two noun phrases, the usual way is to put the possessor in the genitive case, and after the possessed noun, whose determiner is ...
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Can the preposition "aus" be used to express ownership as "von" can?
In the dative case, aus is used to place emphasis on the object moving away from a location, whereas the preposition von is used to place emphasis on the place where the object is moving from, so ...
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Are these good examples of ihrer = her/their in genitive?
I am trying to understand the meaning of ihrer here:
"Sie lernt mit den Kindern ihrer Freunde."
Is it correct to translate this as:
"She is studying with her friends' children."
But if you ...
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Possessivadjektive und Körperteile [duplicate]
Ich habe mehrere Male bemerkt, dass im Kontext der Körperteile in der deutschen Sprache oft kein Possessivadjektiv benutzt wird. Stattdessen gibt es einen Artikel. Zum Beispiel:
Sie hat sich das ...
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Can an apostrophe be sometimes correct after a non-name noun in genitive?
The below paragraph comes from the article “Nein zur Justizreform. Dudas Veto erschüttert Polen” in Der Spiegel:
Selbstkritik sucht man bei den Nationalkonservativen dagegen vergebens. Dabei wäre ...
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Shouldn’t the possessive article show accusative or dative case after ‘über’?
In a German textbook I see a sentence:
Er freut sich über dein Besuch.
Dein is a possesive article following variation like indefinite article. Dein is nominitive form. Why is it not in ...
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possessive articles in a puzzle
I have a puzzle about possessive article here that made me a little confused. There are three dogs Bello, Max and Rex, according to these sentences, Bello is masculine and Max is Feminine, but what ...
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Wann benutzt man »Dem ... seine ...«
Auf einer bekannten Seite, auf der man Lyrics zu Songs aufschreiben und veröffentlichen kann, habe ich eine Anmerkung verfasst welche den folgenden Satz beinhaltet, jedoch wurde mir dieser Satz von ...
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Using the genitive form of Christus in German
I recently asked a question regarding the proper German translation of Jesus Christ. I was told that Christ was Christus, and the genitive form was Christi. So I would just like some help ...
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Can the use of genitive cases instead of a ‘von’ structure lead to ambiguity?
Hat der Hotelgast der Schauspielerin den Pelzmantel gestohlen?
Ja, er hat ihn gestohlen.
or
Ja, er hat ihn ihr gestohlen.
Can we say that ‘der Hotelgast der Schauspielerin’ is the same as ‘the ...
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Do adjectives take strong declension when you have a person's name in genitive before it?
Basically, which of these is correct?
Jeffs graues Messer
Jeffs graue Messer
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Possessiv-s bei längeren Namen
Wie lautet die korrekte Rechtschreibung in folgendem Satz:
Robin Hood's Aufmerksamkeit galt Bruder Tack's Unterweisung.
Ich gehe davon aus, dass es sich um Deppenapostrophe handelt. Aber die ...
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"Ihren Namen". Is there a grammar problem here?
Warum sagt man z.B. "Schreiben Sie Ihren Namen?" Soll das nicht "Ihre Namen" oder "Ihren Name" sein?
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Why is "my father's book" constructed differently in German
My children grow up bi-lingually and sometimes that really helps identify false friends and differences between English and German.
My boy wanted to say the following English sentence in German.
...
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Using a possessive as predicative
So it occurred to me that, just as one can say "der Wagen is rot", one should be able to say
Der Wagen ist mein
with the uninflected (predicative) adjective "mein". That should merely mean, that ...
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In what regions do you say "Das ist mir"?
To express possession you normally say
Das gehört mir.
or
Das ist meins.
But there are regions where people regularly say
Das ist mir.
Which are these regions and is there are terminus ...
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Associate the possessive adjective to a neutral noun
You want to associate the possessive adjective to the possessor (noun). If you have a masculine noun, you use
sein/seine/sein
If the possessor is feminine, you use
ihr/ihre/ihr
What about a ...
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When to use possessive pronouns vs. dative pronoun + definite article
German uses a reflexive dative pronoun and a regular definite article in many places where English would use a possessive pronoun. For example:
I broke my leg.
Ich habe mir das Bein gebrochen.
...
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Genitiv vs Satzkonstruktion mit von
Es ist mir noch immer nicht klar, wann man den Genitiv verwenden muss und wann man auch einen Satz mit von und Dativ bilden kann.
Auf Niederländisch (meiner Muttersprache) gibt es so etwas wie den ...
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Welche Präposition nutzt man, um "das Bild gehört ihr" zu sagen?
Gibt es eine Präposition, die Zugehörigkeit vermittelt? "Das Bild von ihr" bedeutet, dass man sie im Bild sehen kann, oder?
Wie sagt man, dass das Bild ihr gehört?
Ist "von" richtig in folgendem ...
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Origin of the dem–sein possessive
Does anyone know the origin of the slang construct in the form of:
dem Mann sein Hut
(in place of the standard “der Hut des Mannes”)? The colloquial form of “der Hut von dem Mann” has always made ...
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Does German language have "possessive apostrophe"?
Does (did) German have something like what they call possessive apostrophe
in English? If not, what does the role of it in German language?
For example:
This is my father's hat.
My best friend'...
user508
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In welchen Regionen ist die dem-sein-Form gebräuchlich?
Als Alternative zum Genitiv gibt es das dem-sein-Konstrukt. (Keine Ahnung, wie man es sonst nennen sollte):
Der Frau ihre Handtasche. Dem Fritz sein Schwager.
Wo ist diese Form gebräuchlich?
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