Reflexive possessives indicate possession by the subject of the nearest verb and it can mean my own, your own, his/her own, our own, their own. The reflexive possessive in Russian is cвой -
masculine form; feminine - cвоя, neuter - cвоё.
As far as я, ты, мы, вы are concerned, cвой is an alternative to мой, твой, наш, ваш (and is in fact more common in conversational Russian, especially as an alternative to твой). So, if you want to say “I am reading my magazine”, you can say either “я читаю мой журнал” or “я читаю свой журнал”.
Cвой is not an alternative to eго, eё, их. If you want to say his, her, their, you must work out whether you mean his own, her own, their own or not (i.e. you must work out whether you mean that the subject of the verb is the owner). For example:
Анна и Андрей любят свой сад means that the garden in question belongs to Anna and Andreу: they love their (own) garden.
Свой must indicate possession by the subject of the verb; it cannot just describe the subject of the verb. To describe the subject of the verb, you must use мой, твой, его, её, наш, ваш, их:
Его дети говорят по-русски. His children speak Russian.
Sometimes you need both an ordinary possessive and a reflexive possessive in one sentence:
Его дочь не очень любит свой офис. His daughter doesn't really like her office.
In this sentence cвой is needed in the second part of the sentence to indicate that the daughter doesn't like her own office (рossession by the subject of любит). In the first part of the sentence the word “his” is describing the subject of the verb and therefore the reflexive possessive cannot be used.
masculine form; feminine - cвоя, neuter - cвоё.
As far as я, ты, мы, вы are concerned, cвой is an alternative to мой, твой, наш, ваш (and is in fact more common in conversational Russian, especially as an alternative to твой). So, if you want to say “I am reading my magazine”, you can say either “я читаю мой журнал” or “я читаю свой журнал”.
Cвой is not an alternative to eго, eё, их. If you want to say his, her, their, you must work out whether you mean his own, her own, their own or not (i.e. you must work out whether you mean that the subject of the verb is the owner). For example:
Анна и Андрей любят свой сад means that the garden in question belongs to Anna and Andreу: they love their (own) garden.
Свой must indicate possession by the subject of the verb; it cannot just describe the subject of the verb. To describe the subject of the verb, you must use мой, твой, его, её, наш, ваш, их:
Его дети говорят по-русски. His children speak Russian.
Sometimes you need both an ordinary possessive and a reflexive possessive in one sentence:
Его дочь не очень любит свой офис. His daughter doesn't really like her office.
In this sentence cвой is needed in the second part of the sentence to indicate that the daughter doesn't like her own office (рossession by the subject of любит). In the first part of the sentence the word “his” is describing the subject of the verb and therefore the reflexive possessive cannot be used.
| m | f | n | pl | |
| Nominative | свой | своя | своё | свои |
| Genitive | своего | своей | своего | своих |
| Dative | своему | своей | своему | своим |
| Accusative | своего | свою | своего | своих |
| Instrumental | своим | своей | своим | своими |
| Prepositional | своём | своей | своём | своих |
Does "свой" change according to the word that it comes before?
ОтветитьУдалитьfor example:
свой (m) своя (f) свое (n) свои (p)
Yes, you are right. I have put the declination above.
Удалить