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A1 — beginnerPronouns

Possessive pronouns

Lesson opening

This is the first part of the lesson. The rest, the exercises and the reviews are in the app.

Possessive pronouns: my, your, one's own

You can now name the people in a conversation (ja, ti, on). The next step is to say whose something is: "my coffee", "your book", "our city". Serbian does this with possessive pronouns: moj, tvoj, naš, vaš and a few more. English has words for all the same meanings, so the vocabulary is quickly learned. What is new is how the words behave: a Serbian possessive is really an adjective, and like every adjective it agrees with the noun beside it.

At the end of the lesson comes the one word English has no match for: svoj, "one's own". It needs the most care, and it is also the most rewarding part of the topic, because it lets Serbian say precisely what English leaves vague.

The whole set

Seven pronouns cover every person. The table gives each one in its dictionary form (masculine singular) and, beside it, the feminine and the neuter, so that you can see agreement at work straight away.

How to say them: Serbian vowels are pure, as in Spanish or Italian. moj rhymes with English boy ("moy"), tvoj is "tvoy", and naš and vaš end in the sh of push. In njegov, njen and njihov the pair nj is a single sound, the ny of canyon, and the h of njihov is the throaty sound of Scottish loch.

Two points to note. First, English "your" splits in two, just as "you" does: tvoj is "your" to one person you call ti, and vaš is "your" to a group, or the polite "your" to one person. The polite “your” is the same word: Vaš pasoš, molim (“Your passport, please”). In a letter to one person it takes a capital, like Vi itself, even in the middle of a sentence (see “Personal pronouns (nominative)”); the ordinary plural “your” to a group is written in lower case. Second, there is no separate word for "its": a neuter owner (ono) takes njegov, the same word as "his". The three third-person forms, njegov ("his"), njen ("her") and njihov ("their"), deserve a closer look, and we will come back to them.

Agreement: look at the thing, not the owner

This is where English habits mislead. English "my" never changes: my city, my coffee, my beer. In Serbian, don't ask "who owns it?" Ask "what gender is the thing?", and take the ending from that.

Look at the second line: kafa is feminine, so "my coffee" is moja kafa, whoever "I" happens to be. The same holds for every person: before a feminine noun, "your" becomes tvoja, "our" becomes naša, and the plural or polite "your" becomes vaša. Say them aloud: tvoja kafa, naša kafa, vaša kafa. The -a is pulled along by kafa. The case of the noun is copied too, just as with the adjectives in "Adjective agreement": when kafa becomes the object of a verb and changes to kafu (the accusative, from "Accusative forms"), the possessive follows it with -u:

Possessives decline like adjectives: the shared pattern comes with “Adjective declension”. For now, hold on to the main rule: agreement with the thing owned.

The plural: the same logic

When there are several things, the possessive simply takes a plural form, again by the gender of the thing, exactly like an adjective. For moj these are moji (masculine), moje (feminine) and moja (neuter):

Cheat sheet

The cheat sheet — everything essential from the lesson on one page. In the app it opens at any time.

Possessive pronouns: my, your, one's own

A possessive shows whose a thing is. The owner picks the word; the thing owned picks the ending (gender, number, case), as with an adjective.

The whole set

  • Short type: moj, tvoj, svoj, naš, vaš end in j or š, so the neuter is -e (moje, naše). Long type: njegov, njen, njihov change like nov, neuter -o (njegovo, njeno).
  • Polite “your” is the same word: Vaš pasoš, molim. (your passport, please). In a letter to one person: a capital, even mid-sentence.
  • One word for "my" and "mine": To je moj. (it's mine)
  • Say: moj "moy"; nj = ny in canyon; č = ch.

Agree with the thing

moj grad (my city, masculine), moja kafa (my coffee, feminine), moje pivo (my beer, neuter); so tvoja kafa, naša kafa, vaša kafa. Case too: Ovo je moja kafa. (nominative) → Daj mi moju kafu. (accusative)

Trap: moje = neuter singular (moje pivo) and feminine plural (moje knjige, my books); moja = feminine singular (moja kuća) and neuter plural (moja sela).

njegov, njen change too

njegov auto (his car), njegova knjiga (his book), njegovo pismo (his letter); njena kuća (her house), njeno dete (her child). From names: Markov (Marko's); -ev after a soft consonant: Đorđeva knjiga (Đorđe's book).

svoj = the subject's own

One word for every person: Ja volim svoj grad. Ti voliš svoj grad. On voli svoj grad. (I love my city, you love your city, he loves his city). The choice changes the meaning:

čiji? whose?

Agrees with the thing: Čiji je ovo telefon? (phone, masculine), Čija je ovo torba? (bag, feminine), Čije je ovo dete? (child, neuter). Answer: To je moj / njegov / naš.