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🏠 Russian Possessive Pronouns

мой, твой, наш, ваш — how to say "my," "your," "our" and decline them correctly

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The Possessive Pronouns

Russian has seven possessive pronouns. The key thing to know upfront: мой, твой, наш, and ваш decline (change form) to agree with the noun they modify in gender, number, and case. But его, её, and их never change — they stay the same no matter what.

Pronoun	Meaning	Declines?
мой	my	Yes — agrees with the noun
твой	your (informal, singular)	Yes — agrees with the noun
его	his / its	No — never changes
её	her	No — never changes
наш	our	Yes — agrees with the noun
ваш	your (formal or plural)	Yes — agrees with the noun
их	their	No — never changes

Это мой дом. Это моя книга. Это моё окно.This is my house. (masc.) This is my book. (fem.) This is my window. (neut.)

Tip: The possessive pronoun agrees with the thing being possessed, not the person who possesses it. "My book" is "моя книга" (feminine) even if the speaker is male, because книга is feminine.

Declining мой / твой

мой and твой follow the same declension pattern. Here is the full table for мой. To get the forms of твой, simply replace м- with тв-: мой → твой, моя → твоя, моё → твоё, etc. For accusative: animate nouns use the genitive form, inanimate nouns use the nominative form.

Case	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	мой	моя	моё	мои
Genitive	моего	моей	моего	моих
Dative	моему	моей	моему	моим
Accusative (anim.)	моего	мою	моё	моих
Accusative (inanim.)	мой	мою	моё	мои
Instrumental	моим	моей	моим	моими
Prepositional	моём	моей	моём	моих

Я говорю с моим братом. Я думаю о моей сестре.I am talking with my brother. (instrumental) I am thinking about my sister. (prepositional)

Tip: The endings of мой/твой closely mirror the adjective endings for новый. If you already know adjective declension, possessives will feel very familiar.

Declining наш / ваш

наш and ваш also follow the same pattern as each other. Here is the full table for наш. To get ваш forms, replace н- with в-: наш → ваш, наша → ваша, наше → ваше, etc.

Case	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	наш	наша	наше	наши
Genitive	нашего	нашей	нашего	наших
Dative	нашему	нашей	нашему	нашим
Accusative (anim.)	нашего	нашу	наше	наших
Accusative (inanim.)	наш	нашу	наше	наши
Instrumental	нашим	нашей	нашим	нашими
Prepositional	нашем	нашей	нашем	наших

Наш учитель очень добрый. Мы любим нашу школу.Our teacher is very kind. (nominative) We love our school. (accusative)

Tip: Compare наш to мой: the endings are nearly identical. The main difference is that наш has no soft sign (ё) in the prepositional — it is нашем, not нашём. But in everyday speech, the distinction is subtle.

его / её / их — The Easy Ones

The third-person possessives его (his/its), её (her), and их (their) never decline. They stay exactly the same regardless of the gender, number, or case of the noun they modify. This makes them the easiest possessives in Russian.

Possessive	With Masc. Noun	With Fem. Noun	With Neut. Noun	With Plural Noun
его (his)	его дом	его книга	его окно	его друзья
её (her)	её дом	её книга	её окно	её друзья
их (their)	их дом	их книга	их окно	их друзья

Его книга на столе. Я читаю его книгу. Я говорю о его книге.His book is on the table. (nom.) I am reading his book. (acc.) I am talking about his book. (prep.) — его never changes!

Tip: Don't confuse его as a possessive ("his") with его as a personal pronoun ("him"). They are spelled the same but function differently: "Его книга" (his book — possessive) vs. "Я вижу его" (I see him — pronoun). Context always makes it clear.

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🏠 Russian Possessive Pronouns

The Possessive Pronouns

Declining мой / твой

Declining наш / ваш

его / её / их — The Easy Ones

Practice with Interactive Quizzes

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