Свой – The Reflexive Possessive Pronoun

The pronoun свой was for me one of those things that I’ve always tried to stay away from.

I could sense it was one of those tricky bits in the Russian grammar.

Also, since I could use мой to say my, I always thought that свой was something I could live without.

Ну, ладно… “I’ll look at that свой one day”, I kept telling myself.

We, language learners, tend to procrastinate when it comes to nailing down “grey areas” in a language.

However, just like we should never miss an opportunity to practice with native speakers, we should also try to attack those grey areas that create discomfort in the back of our heads.

I finally took the brave decision to throw some light on свой!

If you have you also ignored it, I think it’s time we gave it some attention.

In the end, you’ll see it’s not that bad.

Why do we need свой?

Let’s say you have two friends, Masha and Elena. Consider the following sentence in English:

Masha loves her dog.

Who does her refer to? It could be that Masha loves her own dog, or her friend’s dog (Elena’s dog).

This ambiguity is solved in Russian with the use of the pronoun свой (masculine) – своя (feminine) – своё (neuter) – свои (plural) which means one’s own.

So, two different cases:

Маша любит свою собаку. – Masha loves her (own) dog.

Маша любит её собаку. – Masha loves her (Elena’s) dog.

The pronoun свой declines just like the pronoun мой and твой (look further down for the declension table).

As I said earlier, every time I wanted to say my, I used мой. For example,

Я люблю мой (свой) город. – I love my city; (both мой and свой are OK here)

So, in sentences in which you talk about yourself you could get away with using свой.

However, there is no way you can avoid свой if you want to say that Masha loves her own dog!

When is свой necessary and when not?

Let’s look now at all the cases one by one where we must use свой.

When the subject of the sentence is я, мы, вы, it’s not necessary to use свой; it could be replaced by мой, наш, and ваш respectively. For example,

Я забыл мой (свой) зонтик. – I forgot my umbrella.

Мы любим наш (свой) город. – We love our city.

Вы забыли ваш (свой) ключ. – You forgot your key.

When the subject is ты you can still use твой but свой is preferable.

Ты не видела свою собаку. – You didn’t see your dog.

As discussed above, when the subject is in the 3rd person (either singular or plural), the use of свой is obligatory.

Compare the following two pairs:

Мария ремонтирует свою машину. – Maria is fixing her own car.

Мария ремонтирует её машину. – Maria is fixing her car (someone else’s car – obviously female because of её).

Они любят свою собаку. – They love their (own) dog.

Они любят их собаку. – They love their dog (it could be their friends’ dog).

Attention: Although you can use мой, наш, and ваш in all the above cases, свой is still more preferable and sounds more natural to a native speaker!

Свой and the subject must be in the same clause

As you have noted, свой refers always to the subject of the sentence.

Я потерял свои деньги. – I lost my money.

Мы любим наш (свой) город. – We love our city.

Она ремонтирует свою машину. – She is fixing her own car.

Now pay attention to the following example:

Он говорит, что его сестра живет в Англии. – He says that his sister lives in England.

In the above example, we have him and his own sister. However, we can’t use свой as the subject he and his sister are not in the same clause.

He is part of the main clause (Он говорит…) and his sister is part of a subordinate clause (… что его сестра живет в Англии).

Свой doesn’t like multiple subjects

When we have a multiple subject, свой is not allowed.

When I say multiple I mean multiple nouns serving as a combined subject. For example,

Он и его сестра живут в Англии. – He and his sister live in England.

So, although it’s him and his sister again, we can’t use он и cвоя сестра in the above example.

More examples:

Он и его друг поехали в деревню. – He and his friend went to the village.

Оля и её сестра живут в Москве. – Olya and his sister live in Moscow.

Sometimes we don’t have to use any possessive pronouns

In Russian, when there is no ambiguity, we can omit a pronoun completely. For example,

Она любит мать. – She loves (her) mom. (It’s obvious; it’s her own mom whom she loves.)

Она порвала платье. – She tore her dress.

Она продала квартиру. – She sold her apartment.

It is also common to drop the pronoun when we refer to parts of the body. For example,

Она сломала ногу. – She broke (her) leg.

Он поднял руки. – He raised (his) hands.

Use свой in impersonal phrases

In impersonal phrases (in which the object isn’t specific) we use свой to express possession. For example,

Важно знать свои корни. – It’s important for one to know one’s roots.

Надо уважать своих родителей. – One has to respect one’s parents.

You see that I did my best to express the impersonal meaning of the phrases using one and one’s. In English, you could also say It’s important to know your roots if you wanted to make an impersonal statement. However, if you saw that phrase standing on its own, you wouldn’t be certain whether just YOU should know your roots or lots of people in general.

Свой in the Nominative Case

As you have realised, we don’t often see свой in the Nominative Case. However, in certain Russian proverbs and idiomatic phrases that’s possible. For example,

Свой свояка видит издалека. – Birds of a feather flock together.

Свой дурак дороже чужого умника. – Blood is thicker than water.

Своя рубашка ближе к телу. – Charity begins at home.

У нас нет от неё секретов: она здесь своя. – We don’t keep any secrets from her; she is one of us.

Не стесняйся, здесь все свои. – Don’t be shy; Everyone here is familiar/friend.

У него есть свой бизнес. – He has his own business (Another way to say the same thing is У него есть своё дело).

Свой – Declension Table

Case Singular Plural masculine feminine neuter Nominative свой своя́ своё свои́ Genitive своего́ свое́й своего́ свои́х Dative своему́ свое́й своему́ свои́м Accusative (animate) своего́ свою́ своё свои́х Accusative (inanimate) свой свою́ своё свои́ Instrumental свои́м свое́й свои́м свои́ми Prepositional своём свое́й своём свои́х

Свой – Exercise

Now’s it’s time to test ourselves. Don’t even think to skip the test! It’s the most important part of this lesson and every lesson.

I have mentioned the importance of testing and recall practice a million times in previous articles. You can also watch my YouTube video explaining that in three minutes.

In the examples below, I want you to insert свой, or if this is impossible, a suitable possessive pronoun.

У Даши один брат и одна сестра. – Dasha has one brother and one sister. Она часто говорит о ￼……… брате и о ……… ￼ сестре. – She often speaks about her brother and her sister. ……… брат и сестра живут далеко от Даши. – Her brother and her sister live far from her. Петя пошёл в гости к ……… другу. ……… друг живёт в центре. – Petya visited his friend. His friend lives in the centre. Мой брат и ……… (his) друг обедают. – My brother and his friend are having lunch. Она сказала, что ……… брат болен. – She said her brother was ill. Вы нашли ……… карточку? – Did you find your card? Они потеряли ……… книги. – They lost their books. Это не ……… книга. Возьми ……… – This is not your book. Get yours. Я порезал ……… палец. – I cut my finger. Мы красили ……… комнату. – We painted our room. У бабушки очень хорошая соседка. Бабушка очень часто ходит к ……… соседке. – Grandma has a very nice neighbour. She visits her neighbour very often. Очень важно знать историю ……… страны. – It’s very important to know the history of your country. Лена недавно ездила в Париж. Она рассказала всем о ……… поездке. – Lena recently went to Paris. She talked to everyone about her trip. Света любит ……… девочку. Она думает, что ……… девочка очень умная и красивая. – Sveta loves her girl (daughter). She thinks that her girl is very clever and beautiful. Коля сказал, что ……… друг потерял ……… книгу. – Kolya said that his friend lost his (own) book. Коля сказал, что ……… друг потерял ……… книгу. – Kolya said that his friend lost his (Kolya’s) book. Она звонила ……… другу. – She called her friend. Она вытирает ……… руки. – She is drying her hands. Мы идём к ……… друзьям. – We’re going to our friends. Ольга не знает, что ……… муж рассказывает о ……… жизни. – Olga doesn’t know that her husband is talking about his life. Ты получила письмо от …….. мужа? – Did you get a letter from your husband?

Answers to the Exercise

своём, своей, no pronoun here (it’s obvious that she’s talking about her brother and her sister). Also, in the place of “Она часто говорит о своём брате и о своей сестре” you can just say “Она говорит о своих брате и сестре.“ своему, его его её свою свои твоя, свою – (no pronoun is necessary) свою (or нашу) своей своей своей свою, её его, свою его, его своему – (no pronoun is necessary) своим её, своей своего

You didn’t skip the exercise, did you? 🙂 До скорого!