Moj, tvoj, njegov, njen — and svoj, which you can't do without
Possessives are built like adjectives and agree with the thing, not the owner: moj brat, moja sestra, moje darilo, pri mojem bratu. The root names the owner, the ending follows the thing — keep the two apart in your head once and for all. For example: “Pozabil sem svoj polnilec doma” — I forgot my charger at home. A rule from the Slovenian course: worked out on examples, not memorized as a wording.
How it works
Possessives are built like adjectives and agree with the thing, not the owner: moj brat, moja sestra, moje darilo, pri mojem bratu. The root names the owner, the ending follows the thing — keep the two apart in your head once and for all.
The real news for an English speaker is that njegov and njen decline. English 'his' and 'her' are frozen forever; the Slovenian pair lives a full life through the cases: njegova hčerka, njenega brata, z njenim avtom. The second piece of news is the dual: najin — our, of the two of us; vajin — your, of the two of you; njun — their, of the two of them. Njun otrok is the child of that pair, njihov otrok the child of a bigger crowd. English cannot show the difference, so these words have to be learned as they are.
The key word is svoj. It means 'belonging to the subject', and Slovenian demands it wherever the owner of the thing is the one acting: Vzel je svoj kovček — he took his own case. Say Vzel je njegov kovček and it is somebody else's case — literally 'he took his case' in exactly the sense where English stays ambiguous. English tolerates that ambiguity; Slovenian does not, and the wrong possessive changes the meaning, not the tone.
In Ljubljana speech possession often goes through the preposition od plus the genitive: To je od mojega brata instead of To je bratovo. People say it all the time, especially with names: avto od Mihe — Miha's car. A school essay would mark it red; conversation never does.
Table
| who | possessive | example |
|---|---|---|
| I | moj | moj konjiček |
| you | tvoj | tvoja soba |
| he | njegov | njegov brat |
| she | njen | njena teta |
| we two | najin | najin sosed |
| you two | vajin | vajina hiša |
| they two | njun | njun otrok |
| they | njihov | njihovo dvorišče |
| the doer’s own | svoj | vzel je svoj kovček |
By example
- Pozabil sem svoj polnilec domaI forgot my charger at home
- Njena hčerka in njun sin sta sošolcaHer daughter and their son are classmates
- Najin naslov je isti kot vajinOur address is the same as yours
How the rule settles in your head
A rule is not memorized from an explanation. It is memorized from an attempt to use it and a mistake — that is why the app delivers it mixed in with words, not as a separate lesson: it resurfaces exactly where you forgot it.
Frequently asked
What svoj is for in Slovenian?
Possessives are built like adjectives and agree with the thing, not the owner: moj brat, moja sestra, moje darilo, pri mojem bratu. The root names the owner, the ending follows the thing — keep the two apart in your head once and for all.
Njegov vs svoj?
The real news for an English speaker is that njegov and njen decline. English 'his' and 'her' are frozen forever; the Slovenian pair lives a full life through the cases: njegova hčerka, njenega brata, z njenim avtom. The second piece of news is the dual: najin — our, of the two of us; vajin — your…
Najin, vajin and njun: our for two in Slovenian?
The key word is svoj. It means 'belonging to the subject', and Slovenian demands it wherever the owner of the thing is the one acting: Vzel je svoj kovček — he took his own case. Say Vzel je njegov kovček and it is somebody else's case — literally 'he took his case' in exactly the sense where…
Do njegov and njen decline in Slovenian?
In Ljubljana speech possession often goes through the preposition od plus the genitive: To je od mojega brata instead of To je bratovo. People say it all the time, especially with names: avto od Mihe — Miha's car. A school essay would mark it red; conversation never does.
What does it look like in an example sentence Slovenian?
“Pozabil sem svoj polnilec doma” — I forgot my charger at home. A rule is easier to test on sentences like this than to memorize as a wording: what surfaces in conversation is the sentence.