The Not Too Overly Possessive Pronouns

The possessive pronouns are, as their name implies, selfish, because they insist on doing the work of the genitive form of the personal pronouns. These pronouns are adjectival since they occur in attributive position before the noun they modify and agree in case, number, and gender with the noun. There is one corresponding to each of the 'persons' of personal pronouns. Here is a list of their citation (nominative singular masculine) forms.

The Possessive Pronouns
Person	Singular	Plural
1st	мой my	наш our
2nd	твой your	ваш yalls
3rd	её her, its его his, its	их their

The good news is this: the first- and second-person possessive pronouns follow the general rule of pronouns stated at the top of the page. That is, these possessive pronouns have noun endings in the nominative and accusative and adjective endings everywhere else, so you already know their endings. The even better news is that the 3rd person possessive pronouns, её, его and их are indeclinable—their form never changes! (Russians will do anything to keep their language simple.)

её стол her table	её книга her book	её письмо her letter
его стол his table	его книга his book	его письмо his letter
их стол their table	их книга their book	их письмо their letter

So, you have no further memorization if you just keep in mind two spelling rules: [1] the й + vowel spelling rule for forms like "my (neuter)" and "your (feminine)", the 7-consonant rule for forms like "our (plural)" and the 5-consonant rule for those like "your (plural)". In the table below, the 1st person pronouns are given in the Masculine - Neuter, while the 2nd person pronouns are in the Feminine.

Possessive Pronoun Declensions: 1st & 2nd Persons
Singular
Case	1stSg	2ndSg	1stPl	2ndPl
Nominative	мой, мое	твоя	наш, наше	ваша
Accusative	мой, мое	твою	Nom/Gen	вашу
Genitive	моего	твоей	нашего	вашей
Dative	моему	твоей	нашему	вашей
Prepositional	моём	твоей	нашем	вашей
Instrumental	моим	твоей	нашим	вашей
Plural
Nominative	мои	твои	наши	ваши
Accusative	Nom/Gen	Nom/Gen	Nom/Gen	Nom/Gen
Genitive	моих	твоих	наших	ваших
Dative	моим	твоим	нашим	вашим
Prepositional	моих	твоих	наших	ваших
Instrumental	моими	твоими	нашими	вашими

Don't be intimidated by the size of the possessive pronoun declension table. Take a close look and you will see that in the nominative and accusative of both declensions (which I've darkened to help you spot them), the ending is the same as the nouns of the corresponding gender and that all other endings are the same as the corresponding adjective endings. You already know them! Congratulations on a job well done!

The only catch to the possessive pronouns is found in the interrogative possessive pronoun, the one that means "whose" чей, чья, чьё, чьи. You have to remember that, except in the masculine singular, чей, there is a soft sign before the endings. Otherwise, this possessive pronoun declines like all others.

Чей стол? Whose table?		Чья книга? Whose book?		Чьё письмо? Whose letter?
Чьего стола? Of whose table?		Чью книгу? Whose book?		На чьём письме? On whose letter?

Oh, by the way. . .the possessive reflexive pronoun свой, своё, своя; свои is declined the same as мой and твой It is used when the referent of the possessive is identical with that of the subject, e.g. Я взял свою книгу "I took my (own) book".

Test Your Knowledge of Possessional Pronouns

Here are a few exercises to test your grasp of possessiveness in Russian. Choose the correct case form of the pronoun listed to the right of the sentence and type it into the appropriate space. (Be sure to distinguish e and ё).

Learner's letter-for-letter and standard Russian keyboard layouts are available here if you need them. They will disappear when you scroll down this page. Refresh them by clicking the browser icon that comes up with them. Close the window in the usual way by clicking the "X" in the upper righthand corner.

Possessive Pronoun Exercises
Gloss	Fill in the correct form of the pronouns to the left		Push	Response
	я	Это— книга.
	кто	это комната?
	вы	Где бывший муж?
	ты	Вот общежитие!
	он	Я знаю брата.
	они	Можно видеть дачу отсюда.
	я	Все любят фотографию на почте.
	она	Я люблю играть с собакой.
	вы	Мы говорили о друге в Сибири.
	ты	Митя говорил с мамой в баре.
	я	Они говорили о подмышках.
	мы	Они купались с соседями.
	ты	Аня живет у знакомых.

Aren't pronouns fun? Want to do some more? The next set of pronouns are the most demonstrative of all the Russian pronouns.

© 1996 Robert Beard