Learn How to Use Russian Possessive Pronouns

In a previous article on the gender of nouns we learned to say “This is a ….”We now take this further using possessive pronouns: e.g. “This is my mother.”

Basic forms

The following are the basic possessive pronouns:

• my = мой
• your (singlular and informal) = твой
• his / its (masculine nouns) = его (pronounced “yevo”)
• her / its (feminine nouns) = её
• its (neuter nouns) = его
• our = наш
• your (plural and/or formal) = ваш
• their = их

Endings

As we saw in the last lesson, there are three genders in Russian – masculine, feminine and neuter. Each of these can necessitate a different ending on the possessive pronoun.

The endings for мой are мой (masculine), моя (feminine) and моё (neuter).

твой declines in the same way as мой.

наш has these forms: наш (masculine), наша (feminine), and наше (neuter) - which are actually just the “soft” versions of the endings above.

ваш follows the same pattern as наш.

его, её and их, however, never change.

A complete table of the possessive pronouns (including the plural forms) is available.

Who’s that?

Now let’s use what we’ve learned to introduce people. The gender for people is obvious: брат (brother), oтец (father), сын (son) etc. are all masculine, while сестра (sister), мать (mother), дочь (daughter) etc. are all feminine.

Who’s that? = кто ето?

• that’s my father = ето мой oтец
• that’s your sister = ето твоя сестра
• this is my (male) friend = ето мой друг
• is she your (female) friend? = она вашa подруга?
• is she his mother? = она его мать?
• is he their brother? = он их брат?
• is this her child? = ето её ребёнок?

What’s that?

Of course, the same pattern can be used with animals and objects.

What’s that? = что ето?

• that is a house = ето дом
• that is my house = ето мой дом
• is this your dog? = ето твоя собака?
• no, that is her dog = нет, ето её собака
• is this his letter = ето его письмо?
• no, it’s my letter = нет, ето моё письмо