Присвојне заменице
Overview
Possessive pronouns answer чији? (whose?) and show who something belongs to: мој (my), твој (your, informal singular), његов (his/its), њен (her), наш (our), ваш (your, plural or formal singular), њихов (their). Every one of them agrees with the gender and number of the thing possessed, not with the possessor - exactly like an adjective.
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 personal-pronouns-a1, 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
Use свој whenever the possessor is the same person as the subject of the clause, in any grammatical person - not only the third. Марко воли своју кућу. means Marko loves his own house; Марко воли његову кућу. would mean Marko loves some other man's house.
Свој declines exactly like мој/твој and, being reflexive, never has its own separate first- or second-person form - Ја читам своју књигу. (I'm reading my own book) is just as correct, and just as common, as using моју there.
Чији? - asking whose
Чији/чија/чије (whose) is the question word that possessive pronouns answer, and - like који/која/које in questions-a1 - it agrees with the gender and number of the thing possessed, not with whoever might own it.
Tables
| Person | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter |
|---|---|---|---|
| ја | мој | моја | моје |
| ти | твој | твоја | твоје |
| он / оно | његов | његова | његово |
| она | њен | њена | њено |
| ми | наш | наша | наше |
| ви | ваш | ваша | ваше |
| они / оне / она | њихов | њихова | њихово |
Examples
Compared with…
English his/her/its/their behave like Russian's - they never change form regardless of what's possessed (his book, his house, his children all keep his) - so an English speaker inherits the same instinct to unlearn as a Russian speaker with његов/њен/њихов. Where English offers no help is свој: his own or her own exist only as optional emphasis (He loves his own house vs. plain He loves his house - both grammatical, both ambiguous), never as a required, distinct pronoun the way свој is in Serbian.
Common mistakes
Tips & exceptions
- Свој is strongest in the third person - leaving it out there creates real ambiguity about whose it is (see the Марко example above), which is why it's close to obligatory. In the first and second person, where that ambiguity can't arise, свој stays the common choice but freely alternates with моју/твоју.
- 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 personal-pronouns-a1.
- Њен has an alternative form, њезин, more typical of Croatian usage; standard Serbian, as taught here, uses њен.
- Свој can never stand in for a possessive whose owner is someone other than the subject - when two different people are involved, only његов/њен/наш/ваш/њихов correctly identifies whose it is; свој always circles back to the subject alone.
- 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 genitive-case-a2); this lesson covers only the pronoun answer.
Summary
Opens Focus mode: one exercise at a time, with explanations — either script accepted.
Grammar Words Guided lesson Guided lesson Guided lesson Guided lesson Guided lesson Guided lesson Listening Reading Test
This lesson is the unit's first step. The grammar, the words and the first guided lesson are open to everyone; the rest of the unit's lessons and its text, dialogue and tasks come with Premium.