Posts tagged with "possessive pronouns"

Swedish Pronouns

Posted by Tibor 11 Comments
Jul 19 2010
 Singular and Plural  1 st, 2 nd, 3 rd person  Grundform or Personal Pronouns  Object forms  Possessive  Reflexive  Reflexive possessive
 singular:  1 person  jag  mig  min  (verb) + mig  min
   2 person  du  dig  din  (verb) + dig  din
   3 person  han, hon  honom, henne  hans, hennes  (verb) + sig  sin
   3 person neutrum  den, det  den, det  dess  (verb) + sig  sin
 plural  1 person  vi  oss  vår  (verb) + sig  vår
   2 person  ni  er  er  (verb) + er  er
   3 person  de/dom  dem  deras  (verb) + sig  sin

Ok guys. More grammar on the Swedish blog, even though it is hot summer weather and you don´t want to open your books. I am not just giving you a table but of course some explanations to it. There are some things you should be aware of. I think we can skip the personal pronouns because that is easy but let me give you some examples.

a., Personal Pronouns; Hon är vacker och rolig. She´s beautiful and funny. ( In cases like these you don´t have to put out the personal pronoun two times since you are talking about the same person Marie).   

b., Object forms; Jag ser honom. I see him. Vi träffade dem igår. We met them yesterday.  or De väntar på oss. They are waiting for us. Har du sett den senaste filmen med Sandra Bullock? Have you seen the latest movie with Sandra Bullock? Nej, jag har inte sett den. (Where den referes to the word movie since it is called en film in Swedish so you use the pronoun den. If I hade asked you; Have you seen my umbrella? Then the answer would have been; Nej, jag har inte sett det. Because it is called ett paraply in Swedish.

*Note that in SG/3 in this case people often use han/hon instead of honom and henne in spoken language, especially in Western Sweden. However this use is considered incorrect. But you can hear it a lot so it is good to know. Some lingvists say that in Old Swedish the forms were hon/han and not honom and henne so it might be the original form. Another theory is that people know that it should be henne/honom but we want to save some time when explaining things for example in situations when we both know the object of our conversation: Jag såg (han Christian) igår. And then it easily becomes Jag såg han igår. But you should stick to Jag såg honom igår. That is the correct one or you can say Jag såg Christian igår.

c., Possessive Pronouns; There is never bestämd form i.e definite form of nouns after these pronouns. For example: Mitt hus (since it is called ett hus in Swedish), Min kamera (since it is called en kamera in Swedish), or Våra hus or våra kameror in plural. Find the explanation and tables about Swedish plurals here.  It is also good to know that in PL1 and 2 forms can be pronounced as våran and eran but vår and er are also common of course. Only in spoken language but in written we always stick to the rules! Also note that I haven´t added the t-forms like vårt hus, ert hus and the plurals like våra hus and era hus in the table but they are in use. The forms are always depended on the article of the noun. If it is ett hus then you´ll get vårt, ert, if it is for example en bil, en man, en dotter you would get vår and er.

d., Reflexive Pronouns; You have some reflexive forms and might have some reflexive verbs in your language as well (like in German for example), but they seldom match with Swedish or they have other functions in other languages, so I recommend you to learn the reflexive verbs/phrases by heart like for instance: kamma sig (we say: to comb oneself), tvättar sig (to wash oneself) lägger sig (to lie down). Jag är jättetrött och  ska lägga mig en stund. I am very tired I´ll lie down a bit. Note that in English you use a so called phrasal verb (verb + preposition) to express this action. You wouldn´t say in English ”I lie myself but it is exactly what you say in Swedish”.

Jag lägger mig, Du lägger dig, Han/Hon/Den/Det lägger sig, Vi lägger oss, Ni lägger er, De lägger sig.

e., Reflexive possessive; In this case to make a huge and hard topic blog short I would say that you should think about (one´s own) in English whenever using or hearing these constructions in Swedish. For example. Hon kom med sitt barn på mötet. She came with her (own) child to the meeting while Hon kom med hennes barn på mötet. She came with her (another woman´s child) child to the meeting. Don´t mix the two! Think always about that it is yours/someone else´s own something you talk about. You use sitt in case of t-forms like in the example and sin in case of n-forms like. Han körde sin blåa bil. He drove his (own) blue car. Also note that I havn´t added sina in plural in this table. It functions as a plural form for both sitt and sin. For example: Hon kom med sina döttrar på mötet. She came with her (own) daughters to the meeting or Hon sålde sina två hus i Málaga. She sold her two (own) houses in Málaga.

It’s a sin!

Posted by Transparent Language 8 Comments
Jul 4 2009

Well, not really a sin, but simply “sin”. It’s one of those fun “false friends”- words that look the same in both English and Swedish, but have different meanings. And we could pretty much leave it at that, but unfortunately, this Swedish “sin” can be a bit problematic for English speakers.

You see, it’s a possessive pronoun. Yes, another one, I know, I know… And it’s also of the “not found in English” variety of personal pronouns, which is precisely why it can be a pain to learn and use it correctly.

So, what is this “sin” exactly? It may mean “his” or “her” or “its” or “their” depending on the subject of the sentence. Because you see, it’s used when the third person possessive pronoun in the sentence refers to the subject of the same clause. Confused? OK, let’s take a look at how it works in real life.

  • Åsa är gift med Jonas. – Åsa is married to Jonas.

And this lovely couple will now demonstrate when you use “sin” and when some other possessive pronoun is needed.

  • Jonas besöker sin pappa ofta. – Jonas often visits his (own) dad.
  • Åsa ringer hans pappa varje dag. – Åsa calls his (Jonas’s) dad every day.

See what I mean? In the first sentence, because Jonas is the subject and his dad is the object, instead of “his” we need to use “sin”. It means “his”, but more like “his own”. And that’s basically the gist of it. If you can’t stick “own” after the possessive pronoun in a sentence, then you must use “hans” or “hennes” or “deras”.

Now, Åsa will provide us with one more example.

  • Åsa tvättar inte sin bil. – Åsa doesn’t wash her (own) car. (hehehe, she’s just like me!)
  • Jonas älskar Åsa, så han tvättar hennes bil. – Jonas loves Åsa, and so he washes her car. (and Jonas is just like my husband, LOL!)

And that’s basically it. You just need to remember that “sin” can’t be used with the subject. For example:

  • Jag känner Åsa. – I know Åsa.
  • Hennes man arbetar på vårt kontor. – Her husband works at our office.

See? You can’t say “Sin man arbetar på vårt kontor”.

The easiest way to remember when to use “sin” and when to use a different possessive pronoun is to keep in mind these two simple sentences:

  • Jonas älskar sin fru. – Jonas loves his (own wife).
  • Jonas älskar hans fru. – Jonas loves his (some other guy’s) wife.

And of course, because it’s Swedish “sin” morphs into “sitt” when it is used with “ett” nouns and becomes “sina” when used with plural nouns.

Now, you see that it’s important to learn how to use “sin” correctly – it can help you stay out of trouble when talking about another man’s wife! :) Because otherwise, it’s a sin!

Swedish Possessive Pronouns

Posted by Transparent Language 2 Comments
Jun 30 2009

I have never suspected that possessive pronouns (possessiva pronomen) can be the cause of so many emails! In my post about birthdays, I used a couple of possessive pronouns, and seemingly all of you who had my email address got in touch saying something along those lines “Yo Anna, if you are going to use some goofy examples, don’t you think it would be a good idea to explain first why sometimes ‘din’ is ‘ditt’ or ‘dina’? Because we are not, like, you know, mind readers and stuff.”

Ahhh… Those Swedish personal pronouns… They sure are fun! And don’t worry, they are not as complicated as you think. And by the way, I think I did cover them somewhere on this blog last year.

But since your wish is my command, let’s review those bits, because you are right, they are important, and getting them right makes all the difference between sounding like an idiot and speaking like someone who actually cared enough to learn it properly.

In English, it’s straightforward and easy. Whether you are talking about “my car” or “my children” – “my” stays the same, no matter what.

In Swedish, it’s a bit more involved than that, simply because Swedish nouns are divided into “en” and “ett”. And because most possessive pronouns behave just like adjectives, they need to be treated like adjectives. And hence, most of them get the “t” ending when accompanying “ett” nouns and “a” ending for plural nouns.

Take a look:

  • min bil – my car

but

  • mitt hus – my house

and

  • mina skor – my shoes

Unfortunately, not all possessive pronouns follow this simple pattern. If they did, our lives would be just too easy, right?

Here’s one example:

  • hans katt – his cat

and

  • hans hus – his house

and

  • hans pengar – his money (money is plural in Swedish)

And unfortunately, this one is not the only one. There’s more of them pesky little buggers who don’t like to conform.

Here is the complete table of possessive pronouns:

  • my – min – mitt – mina
  • your (singular) – din – ditt –dina
  • his – hans – hans – hans
  • her – hennes – hennes – hennes
  • its – dess – dess – dess
  • our – vår – vårt – våra
  • your (plural) – er – ert – era
  • their – deras – deras – deras

“Dess” is the possessive pronoun of “den” and “det” but it’s not used very much. Normally, the concept of “its” is expressed in some other way, like for example:
Jag har en katt. – I have a cat.
But instead of saying “Dess päls är vit.” – Its fur (coat) it white.
We would rather say
Den har vit päls. – It has white fur (coat).

There is also a mysterious (at least mysterious to many Swedish learners) pronoun “sin” but I think we should cover it in its very own special post.

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