Genitive of Possession

Level 2

The genitive does the job of English 's and of. It usually comes before the noun it describes: brolio namas (the brother's house).

How It Works

1. Genitive endings.

  • First-declension -as, -is, -ys → -o, -io: Tomas → Tomo, brolis → brolio
  • -a → -os: mama → mamos, Lietuva → Lietuvos
  • -ė → -ės: Eglė → Eglės
  • -us, -ius → -aus, -iaus: Vilnius → Vilniaus
  • plural → -ų or -ių: vaikai → vaikų, tėvai → tėvų

2. Word order. The genitive normally goes first: Tomo mašina (Tomas's car), vaikų kambarys (the children's room). Genitives can be stacked: mano draugo sesuo (my friend's sister).

3. Only the head noun changes. When the whole phrase changes case, the genitive owner stays as it is: Matau brolio namą (I see my brother's house), Gyvenu brolio name (I live in my brother's house).

4. Pronouns. For my and your use mano and tavo, not manęs or tavęs. Jo, jos and jų are the genitives of jis, ji and jie. For your own things, see savo.

5. More than owners. A genitive can also describe a type or material, as in aukso žiedas (a gold ring). That use is covered in genitive nouns as descriptions.

Examples (6)

  1. Tai mano brolio namas.

    This is my brother's house.

    Word by Word: This my brother's house.

    Brolis → brolio, placed before namas.

  2. Vilnius yra Lietuvos sostinė.

    Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania.

    Lietuva → Lietuvos. English says of, Lithuanian uses the genitive.

  3. Koks tavo mamos vardas?

    What is your mom's name?

    Mama → mamos. Tavo stays the same.

  4. Tomo mašina stovi kieme.

    Tomas's car is parked in the yard.

    Tomas → Tomo.

  5. Vaikų kambarys yra antrame aukšte.

    The children's room is on the second floor.

    Vaikai → vaikų, the genitive plural.

  6. Mano draugės sesuo gyvena Klaipėdoje.

    My friend's sister lives in Klaipėda.

    Draugė → draugės. Mano describes draugės, and draugės describes sesuo.

Common Mistakes

  • Leaving the owner in the nominative.

    Tai brolis namas.
    Tai brolio namas.

    The owner must be in the genitive: brolis → brolio.

  • Using manęs or tavęs for my and your.

    Tai manęs knyga.
    Tai mano knyga.

    Manęs is the genitive used after verbs and prepositions, as in be manęs. For my, always use mano.

  • Leaving a place name in the nominative.

    Vilnius yra Lietuva sostinė.
    Vilnius yra Lietuvos sostinė.

    Lietuva describes sostinė, so it goes in the genitive: Lietuvos.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

Genitive of PossessionLevel 2

Learn This First

The genitive noun identifies an owner or a larger whole.

Learn Next

Patterns that build on this one.