Dutch Possessive Pronouns: mijn, jouw, zijn — and ons vs onze — A1 Dutch Grammar Course, Lesson 16 | My Dutch Journal

Dutch Possessive Pronouns: mijn, jouw, zijn — and ons vs onze | A1 Dutch, Lesson 16

July 4, 2026

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Welcome to lesson sixteen of the A1 Dutch Grammar Course. In the previous lesson you learned ordinal numbers. In this lesson you are going to learn possessive pronouns — the words that show ownership: my, your, his, her, our, and their. In Dutch, these pronouns come directly before the noun, and they replace the article. The system is straightforward, with one important distinction to learn: Dutch uses two different words for our — ons and onze — depending on the type of noun that follows. By the end of this lesson, you will know the possessive forms for all personal pronouns and the rule for choosing between ons and onze.

De bezittelijke voornaamwoorden

Here are all eight possessive pronouns. Ik — my — is mijn. Jij and je — your — is jouw or je. U — formal your — is uw. Hij — his — is zijn. Zij and ze — her — is haar. Wij and we — our — is ons or onze, and we will look at that distinction in a moment. Jullie — your plural — is also jullie, the same word. And zij and ze for they — their — is hun. The most important thing to notice is that possessive pronouns replace the article. You do not say de mijn tas or het zijn huis. You say mijn tas, zijn huis. The possessive already tells the listener which noun is being referred to — the article is not needed.

Persoonlijk vnw.	Bezittelijk vnw.	Engels	Voorbeeld
ik	mijn	my	mijn tas
jij / je	jouw / je	your (informal)	jouw sleutels
u	uw	your (formal)	uw naam
hij	zijn	his	zijn auto
zij / ze	haar	her	haar moeder
wij / we	ons / onze	our	ons huis / onze kamer
jullie	jullie	your (plural)	jullie leraar
zij / ze	hun	their	hun fietsen

Bezittelijk vnw. + zelfstandig naamwoord

The possessive pronoun takes the same position as the article — directly before the noun. Waar is mijn tas? — Where is my bag? Zijn sleutels liggen op tafel — His keys are on the table. Haar moeder werkt in Amsterdam. Jullie leraar spreekt goed Nederlands. Hun fietsen staan voor de deur — Their bikes are in front of the door. You can also place an adjective between the possessive and the noun, just as you can with an article. Zijn nieuwe auto — his new car. Haar zieke moeder — her sick mother. Mijn grote kamer — my big room. The possessive comes first, then the adjective, then the noun. The adjective inflection rules from lesson fourteen still apply — when an adjective comes between a possessive pronoun and a noun, it normally takes -e: zijn nieuwe auto, haar zieke moeder, ons nieuwe huis.

Ons of onze?

The one point that needs special attention is the word for our. Dutch uses two forms: ons and onze. The rule is simple: if the noun takes de in the singular, use onze. If the noun takes het in the singular, use ons. De auto — onze auto. De kamer — onze kamer. Het huis — ons huis. Het kind — ons kind. Het land — ons land. For plurals, all nouns use de in the plural — as you learned in lesson thirteen. So in the plural, you always use onze: onze huizen, onze kinderen, onze auto's. To apply this rule, you need to know whether a noun is a de-word or a het-word — which is exactly why lesson ten on Dutch articles was so important. If you are unsure whether a noun is de or het, look it up in a dictionary, where it will be marked.

de auto	→	onze auto	het huis	→	ons huis
de kamer	→	onze kamer	het kind	→	ons kind

Je of jouw?

For the informal you — jij and je — there are also two possessive forms: je and jouw. In everyday speech, the short unstressed form je is more common. Waar is je tas? Is dit je fiets? But when you want to emphasize or contrast ownership, you use the full stressed form jouw. Jouw fiets is mooi, maar mijn fiets is sneller — your bike is nice, but my bike is faster. In that sentence, the contrast between your and my is the point, so jouw and mijn are both stressed. Outside of contrast and emphasis, je works perfectly for most situations. Be careful with the short subject forms we and ze: they are not possessive pronouns. For our, you still use ons or onze. For her, you use haar. For their, you use hun.

Key Takeaways

Here is what you learned in this lesson. Dutch has eight possessive pronouns: mijn, jouw and je, uw, zijn, haar, ons and onze, jullie, and hun. Possessive pronouns come directly before the noun and replace the article — no de, het, or een is used alongside them. When you want to say our in Dutch, you need to choose between ons and onze: use onze before de-words and in the plural, and ons before het-words in the singular. In lesson seventeen you will learn demonstrative pronouns — dit, dat, deze, and die — the Dutch words for this and that.

De acht bezittelijke voornaamwoorden	Ons of onze?
mijn · jouw/je · uw · zijn · haar · jullie · hun	de-woord → onze: onze auto · onze kamer
ons (het-woord) · onze (de-woord, meervoud)	het-woord → ons: ons huis · ons kind
Geen artikel: mijn tas — niet: de mijn tas	Meervoud → altijd onze: onze huizen
Volgorde: bezittelijk + (bijv. nw.) + zelfst. nw.	Je of jouw? → nadruk bepaalt de keuze

Practice What You Learned

Reading about grammar is step one — using it is what makes it stick. In My Dutch Journal Academy you can watch the full video of this lesson, do interactive exercises that check your answers instantly, and practise all the vocabulary from the A1 course.