Use of Chinese Possessive Pronouns vs Possessive Determiners

Chinese Possessive Pronouns (Mine) and Possessive Determiners (My), also known as Possessive Adjectives are not the same, even though both terms demonstrate ownership. Both use the Chinese Pronouns + 的 | De in a different placement in Mandarin. Just pay attention to the sentence construction and position of 的 | De.

*Do note that the Personal Pronouns below can be replaced by other subjects such as a person’s name, an animal, an object etc.

Take a look below at both the Table of the English Possessive Terms vs Chinese Possessive Pronouns and Determiner.

Table of English Possessive Term List

Table of Chinese Possessive Term List

I hope the table above gives you a clearer picture of how to form a Chinese sentence with 的 | de which is a neutral tone in Chinese Pinyin. The underscore ( __ ) represents nouns.

Chinese Possessive Determiners with 的 De

The word 的｜de will come after the pronoun and before a noun. Although this is the standard ‘formula’ of using a Chinese Possessive Determiner, you will see and hear for yourself that it is common for the Chinese people to drop the de when they speak. In many instances, it sounds correct.

Do not be too bothered whether the 的｜de should be dropped because it will come naturally to you later. In the meanwhile, learn the standard way of Chinese by adding 的 into your Possessive Determiner sentence, so that you will always be correct when you express yourself in words or writing.

Chinese Possessive Pronouns with 的 De

The Chinese Possessive Pronouns have nouns (or none) placed in front of the Personal Pronouns, followed by a 的｜de and then a full-stop.

The Chinese Possessive Pronouns placement is typically at the end of the sentence like the English sentence – Eg. It is mine | 这是我的. The 的 of such a construction is not dropped unlike the Chinese Possessive Determiner above. If you omit out 的, the sentence will be incomplete.

The English ‘verb to be‘ – am, are, is | 是 | shì has a bracket in it which means that it can be omitted out or replaced depending on the Chinese sentence construction.

For the above example, 这是我的, you cannot omit the 是 from it too. Otherwise, the sentence is not correct. Most of the times, the Chinese Possessive Pronouns will have a 是 | shì before the nouns.

Sentences – Chinese Possessive Pronouns vs Possessive Determiners

Enough of the theory. Let’s take a look at the Chinese sentence examples of both.

Note: The sentence will be marked with (D) and (P) which stands for Possessive Determiner and Possessive Pronoun respectively so you can make a comparison in a more complicated sentence.

From Possessive Determiner to Possessive Pronoun

When a noun has been mentioned once in Possessive Determiners, you can drop it from the subordinate clause and turn it into a Possessive Pronoun. You can relate such a sentence construction like a direct English translation. Look at the two sets of examples below.

Chinese Possessive Pronouns Sentences

When I wrote the sentences below, it reminded me that I used to tell my boyfriend in a joking manner – “What is mine is mine, what is yours is mine“.

It seemed that this ‘joke’, or maybe a fact for some, is exclusively used by the Chinese women on their husbands. Perhaps, we are brainwashed by some relationship value that a man should be the lead and provide for the family. Traditional, indeed.

Omission of 的 De from Chinese Possessive Determiners

Here is another set of examples where the particle 的 is omitted from the Possessive Determiner sentences, and still deemed as correct. The de omission method is used when describing people who are closed to you such as your family members and friends.

It stemmed probably out of convenience over time and frequently in colloquial speech with singular pronouns till it becomes acceptable. With or without 的, it does not matter much as long as it does not sound strange to us.