~7 min · 10 exercises

Part of the unit “Family & introductions: talking about yourself and your people”

Prisvojne zamenice

possessive-pronouns

Overview

Possessives answer чији? (whose) and agree with the gender and number of the thing owned, like adjectives.

Serbian also has an eighth possessive, свој, that no single person owns - it means "my own / your own / his own…" depending on who the subject of the sentence is. Свој gets its own section further down.

Person-based possessives and agreement

Мој and твој decline exactly alike: мој/моја/моје and твој/твоја/твоје for masculine/feminine/neuter, моји/моје/моја and твоји/твоје/твоја in the plural. Наш and ваш follow the same pattern.

Његов (his/its), њен (her) and њихов (their) also decline like adjectives, agreeing with whatever is possessed: његов ауто, његова кућа, његово село (car/house/village) - the ending tracks the object, never the owner. Њен works the same way for a female possessor: њена кућа, њен ауто, њено писмо.

Addressing formally: ваш and Ваш

Exactly like ви/Ви in the lesson on personal pronouns, ваш is capitalized Ваш when it formally addresses one respected person's possession: Ваш пасош, молим. (Your passport, please.) Lowercase ваш addresses more than one person, or one person informally.

Свој - the reflexive possessive

Свој refers to something owned by the subject of the sentence, whatever the person: Марко воли своју кућу. (Marko loves his own house.) Use његову кућу if it belongs to another man.

Свој changes like мој/твој and agrees with the thing owned: Ја читам своју књигу.

Чији? - asking whose

Чији/чија/чије (whose) is the question word that possessive pronouns answer, and - like који/која/које in the lesson on questions - it agrees with the gender and number of the thing possessed, not with whoever might own it.

Tables

Possessive pronouns by person
Person	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
ja	moj	moja	moje
ti	tvoj	tvoja	tvoje
on / ono	njegov	njegova	njegovo
ona	njen	njena	njeno
mi	naš	naša	naše
vi	vaš	vaša	vaše
oni / one / ona	njihov	njihova	njihovo

Examples

Ovo je moj brat.

This is my brother.

мој agrees with masculine брат.

Ovo je tvoja kuća.

This is your house.

твоја agrees with feminine кућа.

Njegov auto je nov.

His car is new.

његов agrees with masculine ауто, not with the male possessor.

Njena knjiga je zanimljiva.

Her book is interesting.

њена marks a female possessor and agrees with feminine књига.

Naša deca su srećna.

Our children are happy.

наша agrees with деца, which is grammatically feminine, not neuter, despite naming children (see the lesson on the plural).

Da li je ovo Vaš kofer?

Is this your suitcase?

Capitalized Ваш - formal address to one person.

Marko voli svoju kuću.

Marko loves his (own) house.

Use свој because the owner, Марко, is the subject.

Čija je ovo olovka? - Moja.

Whose pencil is this? - Mine.

чија agrees with feminine оловка; the answer can be the bare possessive моја.

To je moja majka.

This is my mother.

моја agrees with feminine мајка - the phrase you meet naming who is who in a family photograph.

Njegova sestra je mlada.

His sister is young.

његова agrees with feminine сестра, not with the male possessor - the same rule as његов ауто above.

Ona voli svoju porodicu.

She loves her own family.

своју - the possessor (она) is the sentence's own subject, exactly like „Марко воли своју кућу.“ above.

Compared with…

English possessive forms such as his/her/their do not change to agree with the thing owned, while Serbian његов/њен/њихов do. Serbian also uses свој when the owner is the subject.

Serbian

Marko voli svoju kuću.

English can add emphasis with “own”; Serbian uses свој when the owner is the subject.

English

Marko loves his own house.

Common mistakes

Wrong

Marko voli njegovu kuću.

Right

Marko voli svoju kuću.

When the possessor is the subject itself, Serbian requires свој, not његов - његову here would mean some other man's house.

Wrong

Njegova torba je nova.

Right

Njena torba je nova.

Његов marks a male possessor (his); a female possessor (her) needs њен - његова and њена are not interchangeable.

Wrong

vaš pasoš, molim.

Right

Vaš pasoš, molim.

Capitalize Ваш in writing when formally addressing a single person, mirroring the Ви/ви rule.

Wrong

Čija je ovo auto?

Right

Čiji je ovo auto?

Чији/чија/чије agrees with the possessed noun's gender, not the possessor's; ауто is masculine, so чији.

Tips & exceptions

Tips

Use свој when the thing owned belongs to the subject of the sentence. If someone else owns it, use the matching form of његов/њен/њихов.
Његов/њен/њихов decline like adjectives to agree with the possessed noun, rather than staying fixed - check the gender of the thing owned, not the owner.
Capitalize Ваш only for formal singular address, exactly mirroring the Ви/ви rule from the lesson on personal pronouns.

Exceptions

Њен has an alternative form, њезин, more typical of Croatian usage; standard Serbian, as taught here, uses њен.
Свој refers only to the subject of the sentence. For a different owner, use његов/њен/наш/ваш/њихов.
Чији? questions are not the only way to ask about possession - a noun's owner can also be named with a genitive noun phrase instead of a pronoun at all (see the lesson on the genitive); this lesson covers only the pronoun answer.

Summary

Serbian possessive pronouns (мој, твој, његов, њен, наш, ваш, њихов) agree with the thing owned in gender and number and decline like adjectives. Свој refers to something owned by the subject. Чији/чија/чије asks “whose?” and agrees with the thing owned. Capitalize Ваш when formally addressing one person.