Possession in Dutch: van, the Possessive -s and ons vs onze — A2 Dutch Grammar Course, Lesson 21 | My Dutch Journal

Possession in Dutch: van, the Possessive -s and ons vs onze | A2 Dutch, Lesson 21

July 4, 2026

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Welcome to lesson twenty-one of the A2 Dutch Grammar Course. In this lesson you will learn all the ways Dutch expresses possession — who owns what. You can express possession with the preposition van, with a possessive adjective like mijn or haar, or by adding -s to a name. There is also one important detail: the word for our in Dutch has two forms — onze and ons — and choosing the right one depends on the noun that follows. By the end of this lesson you will know all these patterns.

Drie manieren om bezit uit te drukken

Dutch has three main ways to show that something belongs to someone. The first is the van-construction. De fiets is van Peter. — The bike belongs to Peter. Dat boek is van haar. — That book is hers. The second is a possessive adjective placed before the noun. Zijn fiets staat buiten. — His bike is outside. Mijn tas is zwart. — My bag is black. The third is adding -s to a name. Peters fiets. — Peter's bike. All three approaches are correct and common. You will practise all of them in this lesson.

Manier	Voorbeeld
van + zelfstandig naamwoord of naam	De fiets is van Peter. · Dat boek is van haar.
Bezittelijk voornaamwoord	Zijn fiets staat buiten. · Mijn tas is zwart.
Naam + bezits-s	Peters fiets · Petra's auto

Van + naam of pronomen

The van-construction is flexible. After the verb zijn, you can use van with a personal pronoun in object form, a name, or a noun. De auto is van mij. — The car is mine. Het boek is van Max. — The book is Max's. Het huis is van de familie. — The house belongs to the family. You can also place van directly after the noun that is owned, without zijn. De fiets van Peter staat voor de deur. — Peter's bike is at the door. Die tas van haar is erg mooi. — Her bag is very beautiful. Note the object forms: van mij, van jou, van hem, van haar, van ons, van hen — not the subject forms ik, jij, hij.

Bezittelijk voornaamwoord

The possessive adjectives are placed before the noun. Most forms are the same before any noun. For jij and je, the standard form is jouw — but in everyday speech je is also very common: je auto, je boek. Mijn auto — mijn huis. Zijn werk — zijn fiets. Haar tuin — haar huis. Notice that zij and ze appears twice in the table. When zij or ze means 'she', the possessive is haar. When zij or ze means 'they', the possessive is hun. Hun auto — hun huis. But there is one more exception you need to know: wij and we have two forms. Ons is used before het-words in the singular. Onze is used before de-words and all plurals. That rule is important enough that it gets its own slide. In informal spoken Dutch, you will often hear shorter forms: mijn becomes m'n, zijn becomes z'n, haar becomes d'r. In standard written Dutch, always write mijn, zijn, and haar.

Persoon	Bezittelijk vnw.	Voorbeeld
ik	mijn	mijn auto · mijn huis
jij of je	jouw of je	jouw auto · je huis
u	uw	uw auto · uw huis
hij	zijn	zijn auto · zijn huis
zij of ze (enkelvoud)	haar	haar auto · haar huis
wij of we	ons of onze	ons huis (het) · onze auto (de)
jullie	jullie	jullie auto · jullie huis
zij of ze (meervoud)	hun	hun auto · hun huis

Onze of ons? — het verschil

The only possessive adjective that has two forms is the one for our. Before a het-word in the singular, you use ons. Ons huis. Ons boek. Ons kind. Before a de-word, or before any plural noun, you use onze. Onze auto. Onze tuin. Onze kinderen. The trick is to know whether the noun is a het-word or a de-word. If you are not sure, onze is the safer choice — it is correct for de-words and all plurals. All other possessive adjectives — mijn, jouw, zijn, haar, jullie, hun — stay the same regardless of the noun: mijn auto en mijn huis, zijn fiets en zijn kind.

Naam + bezits-s — bezit met een eigennaam

The third way to express possession is to add -s directly to a name. Peters fiets. — Peter's bike. Names like Marieke and Anneke also take a direct s: Mariekes boek. Annekes tas. No apostrophe is used here — that is different from English. The final -e in these names is a soft unstressed sound — a schwa. That is not the same as the clearly long vowel at the end of Petra or Sandra. So Marieke and Anneke follow the regular pattern: direct -s, no apostrophe. When the name ends in a long vowel sound written with one vowel, you add 's with an apostrophe. Petra's fiets. Sandra's auto. Otto's boek. The apostrophe keeps the vowel sound clear. When a name ends in -s, -x, or -z, you add only an apostrophe — no extra s is written. Truus' fiets. Beatrix' boek. You can also always use the van-construction instead: de fiets van Truus — that works for every name without exception.

Patroon	Naam	Bezitsvorm	Voorbeeld
Reguliere naam — voeg -s toe	Peter	Peters	Peters fiets
Reguliere naam — voeg -s toe	Marieke	Mariekes	Mariekes boek
Eindigt op lange klinker — voeg 's toe	Petra	Petra's	Petra's fiets
Eindigt op lange klinker — voeg 's toe	Otto	Otto's	Otto's boek
Eindigt op -s, -x, of -z — alleen apostrof	Truus	Truus'	Truus' fiets
Eindigt op -s, -x, of -z — alleen apostrof	Beatrix	Beatrix'	Beatrix' boek

Wat heb je geleerd?

Let's review. Dutch has three ways to express possession. The van-construction: de fiets is van Peter — the object form of the pronoun is used after van. Possessive adjectives: mijn, jouw, zijn, haar, jullie, hun all stay the same before any noun. The special case is ons and onze — ons before het-words, onze before de-words and all plurals. The name plus s construction: add -s directly for regular names, add 's after a long vowel sound written with one vowel, and add only an apostrophe when the name ends in -s, -x, or -z.

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 A2 course.