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Looking at the table for declension of "mein" on Wiktionary, it has separate tables for:
- attributiv (vor Substantiv)
- nicht attributiv, ohne Artikel
- nicht attributiv, mit Artikel

Could you give example sentences where the different uses would apply? I have also read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_declension#Attributive_adjectives which talks about strong, weak and mixed declension attributive adjectives, and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_adjectives which explains in general what an attributive adjective is, but I can't understand what a non-attributive use of "mein" would be, or why one would ever have an article.

Vicky
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1 Answers1

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Wiktionary is a bit of a mess here. Usually, attributive vs. non-attributive is a distinction made for adjectives. Attributive adjectives accompany a noun and show agreement, non-attributive adjectives are used as predicatives or adverbs and do not show agreement. Also note that am + -en in the superlative only occurs in the non-attributive use.

attributive: das neue Auto, die beste Idee
non-attributive: Das Auto ist neu. Diese Idee finde ich am besten.

Wiktionary's page for mein uses "non-attributive" to indicate that there is no noun present. This subsumes two grammatically quite different cases:

possessive pronoun: Dein Wortschatz ist größer als meiner.
possessive adjective: Dein Wortschatz ist größer als der meine.

In the first example, meiner is a possessive pronoun which shows anaphoric agreement with Wortschatz; in the second meine is a possessive adjective, with weak inflection triggered by the definite article der.

What Wiktionary calls "attributive" is the possessive article.

possessive article: Dein Wortschatz ist größer als mein Wortschatz.

David Vogt
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  • Ah, thank you. I was completely unfamiliar with the "Dein Wortschatz ist größer als der meine" form. That makes much more sense now. – Vicky Apr 23 '19 at 15:47
  • @Vicky We actually just had a question about this. I think it should be considered old-fashioned. – David Vogt Apr 23 '19 at 18:23
  • I saw that question in HNQ which was actually why I was reading the Wiktionary page in the first place! My German is best described as “rusty” but my son is learning it now and I am trying to get it back so I can help him. – Vicky Apr 23 '19 at 19:21