In short

Possessive pronouns say who something belongs to: mijn boek (my book), haar auto (her car). They go straight in front of the noun and almost never change form. The one exception is ons / onze: use ons before a het-word, onze before a de-word and before every plural.

The rule

Put the possessive directly before the noun, just like English “my / your / her”: mijn huis, jouw fiets, haar tas. There is no inflection for de/het or singular/plural - one form fits every noun. So mijn boek and mijn boeken, zijn auto and zijn auto’s: the possessive itself stays the same.

The single exception is ons / onze (“our”):

• ons + a het-word (singular) -> ons huis, ons kind, ons land
• onze + a de-word (singular) -> onze auto, onze tuin, onze hond
• onze + any plural (de-word or het-word) -> onze auto’s, onze kinderen, onze huizen

Stressed vs unstressed: a few forms have a weak spoken variant (mijn -> m’n, zijn -> z’n, haar -> d’r/‘r). These belong to casual speech; in normal writing use the full form mijn, zijn, haar.

To stress ownership or to say “mine, yours” on its own, use van + the object pronoun (see lesson 13): Die fiets is van mij = That bike is mine. Is dat boek van jou? = Is that book yours?

For names - and for family words used like names - you have two everyday options:

• Possessive -s: add -s to the name, normally without an apostrophe -> Jans boek, Maries jas, Peters auto. After a long single vowel (a, o, u, i, y) you do write -‘s, just as in the plural: Anna’s tas, Otto’s fiets, Ruby’s jas. The same -s goes on a family word: vaders fiets, moeders recept, mijn broers kamer, oma’s bril.
• van + name: het boek van Jan, de jas van Marie. This is very common, especially in speech - and for a noun that is neither a name nor a family word it is your only option: de auto van de buurman, not de buurmans auto.

Forms & patterns

A singular thing usually takes zijn whatever its article: het toestel -> zijn batterij, de boom -> zijn bladeren - a de-word owner is no reason to switch to haar, which belongs to a female person. (Formal writing does use haar for organisations and abstract de-words: de regering en haar beleid.)

Note: when the owner is jullie, the possessive may shrink to je if it is clear from context: Hebben jullie je paspoort bij je? Otherwise use jullie boek.

The ons/onze choice at a glance:

Examples

Common mistakes

• onze huis -> ons huis - “huis” is a het-word, so use ons (not onze) in the singular.
• ons auto -> onze auto - “auto” is a de-word; de-words and all plurals take onze.
• mijne boek / mijnen huis -> mijn boek - possessives never add endings (only ons/onze changes).
• jou boek -> jouw boek - the possessive is jouw (with -w); jou (no -w) is the object pronoun, as in voor jou.
• Jan’s boek -> Jans boek - the possessive -s on a name takes no apostrophe.

Tips

• Memory hook for the only irregular one: ons + het-word, onze for everything else (de-words and all plurals).
• Spelling trap: jouw = possessive (“your” + noun), jou = object (“to/for you”). They sound identical, so listen for what follows: a noun -> jouw, otherwise -> jou.
• Need “mine / yours / his” by itself? Switch to van + object pronoun: van mij, van jou, van hem, van haar, van ons, van hen (see lesson 13).
• The weak forms m’n, z’n, d’r are fine when speaking, but write mijn, zijn, haar in normal text.