"My", "your", "his", "her", "our", "their" — in English these are tiny invariable words you set down once and forget. In Croatian the equivalents moj, tvoj, njegov, njezin, naš, vaš, njihov are full inflecting words that agree with whatever is owned. The single idea that makes the whole system click, and the one English speakers most often get wrong, is this: a Croatian possessive agrees with the thing possessed, not with the owner. "His sister" puts a feminine ending on njegov because sestra is feminine — even though the owner is male. Master that one reversal and the rest is mechanical.
The seven possessives
| Owner | Possessive | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| ja (I) | moj | my |
| ti (you sg.) | tvoj | your (sg., informal) |
| on (he) / ono (it) | njegov | his / its |
| ona (she) | njezin ~ njen | her |
| mi (we) | naš | our |
| vi (you pl.) / polite | vaš (Vaš) | your (pl. / polite) |
| oni / one / ona (they) | njihov | their |
Two notes before we go further. First, "her" has two equally correct shapes, njezin (a touch more formal/written) and njen (a touch more colloquial) — pick either, they mean the same. Second, the polite "your" is vaš, written with a capital Vaš as a courtesy when addressing one person formally, exactly as you would capitalise polite Vi.
Gdje je moja kava?
Where's my coffee? — 'moja' agrees with feminine 'kava'.
Tvoj brat me zvao.
Your brother called me. — 'tvoj' agrees with masculine 'brat'.
Jesu li ovo Vaši ključevi?
Are these your keys? — polite 'Vaši', capitalised, agreeing with plural 'ključevi'.
The core rule: agree with the thing owned
Here is the reversal English speakers must internalise. In English, his/her track the owner: a man owns "his" car, a woman owns "her" car, and the word car never affects the choice. In Croatian the owner's gender is baked into the choice of pronoun — njegov (his) versus njezin (her) — but once you have chosen the right pronoun, its ending is set by the possessed noun, not the owner.
So "his sister" and "his brother" both use njegov (the owner is male), but the endings differ because sestra is feminine and brat is masculine:
njegova sestra
his sister — 'njegov' + feminine ending '-a' because 'sestra' is feminine, though the owner is male.
njegov brat
his brother — 'njegov' with the bare masculine form, matching masculine 'brat'.
And the mirror image — "her brother" and "her sister" both use njezin (the owner is female), but again the ending follows the noun:
njezin brat
her brother — 'njezin' with the masculine form, because 'brat' is masculine, though the owner is female.
njezina sestra
her sister — 'njezin' + '-a' to match feminine 'sestra'.
Full agreement: gender, number, and case
Because a possessive behaves like an adjective, it carries the full range of endings — three genders, singular and plural, and all seven cases. Here is moj across the genders and into the plural in the nominative, to show the shape of the agreement:
| Possessed noun | Form of "my" | Example |
|---|---|---|
| masculine (auto) | moj | moj auto |
| feminine (knjiga) | moja | moja knjiga |
| neuter (dijete) | moje | moje dijete |
| masc. plural (prijatelji) | moji | moji prijatelji |
| fem. plural (sestre) | moje | moje sestre |
Moje dijete polazi u školu.
My child is starting school. — neuter 'moje' for neuter 'dijete'.
Naša kuća je na kraju ulice.
Our house is at the end of the street. — 'naš' → feminine 'naša' for 'kuća'.
Njihovi susjedi su jako bučni.
Their neighbours are very loud. — 'njihov' → masculine plural 'njihovi'.
When the noun goes into an oblique case, the possessive follows it there too. Possessives decline like adjectives — moj, tvoj, svoj take the soft/pronominal pattern, while the longer njegov, njezin, naš, vaš, njihov take an ending set very close to the regular hard adjective endings. The full mechanics are on hard adjective declension; here are the most frequent oblique forms in action:
Vidio sam tvojeg brata.
I saw your brother. — accusative-animate 'tvojeg' agreeing with 'brata'.
Razgovarala sam s njegovom sestrom.
I talked with his sister. — instrumental 'njegovom' after 's', matching feminine 'sestrom'.
To je auto mojih roditelja.
That's my parents' car. — genitive plural 'mojih' agreeing with 'roditelja'.
moj / tvoj / svoj decline alike; njegov-type a little differently
It helps to group the seven by how they decline. The short ones — moj, tvoj, svoj (and, where it appears, čiji "whose") — share one soft pronominal pattern with the contractable middle vowel (mojega often shortens to mog, mojemu to mom). The -ov/-in type — njegov, njezin/njen, njihov — plus naš and vaš take endings essentially like ordinary adjectives.
Dao sam to svom najboljem prijatelju.
I gave it to my best friend. — contracted dative 'svom' (from 'svojemu'); see the svoj page for why 'svoj' here, not 'moj'.
Bili smo kod njihovih prijatelja.
We were at their friends' place. — genitive plural 'njihovih', adjective-type ending.
njegov is invariable for the owner — it's not a pronoun that changes
A subtle but reassuring point: njegov, njezin, and njihov are built from the genitive of on/ona/oni (njega, nje, njih) plus a possessive suffix, so they look frozen as to the owner. You never adjust njegov itself for who "he" is — there is only one "his". All the variation you see is agreement with the possessed noun, never with the owner. This is why beginners panic at njegova, njegovo, njegovi: those are not different "his" pronouns, they are the same njegov taking feminine, neuter, and plural endings.
Njegova ideja, njegovo rješenje, njegovi planovi.
His idea, his solution, his plans. — one owner, one pronoun 'njegov', three endings tracking the three nouns.
The possessive dative: a casual alternative
In relaxed, especially spoken Croatian, possession involving a person is often expressed not with a possessive pronoun at all but with a dative clitic — "the brother to-me" instead of "my brother". This possessive dative is everywhere in speech and worth recognising early.
Brat mi je u Njemačkoj.
My brother's in Germany. — literally 'the brother is to-me'; dative 'mi' does the work of 'moj'.
Kako ti je mama?
How's your mum? — 'ti' (to-you) for 'your', the warm, everyday way to ask.
These are not the noun-derived possessive adjectives
Keep these personal possessives (moj, njegov, naš…) distinct from the possessive adjectives built from a name or noun — Markov ("Marko's"), mamin ("mum's"), bratov ("brother's"). Both agree with the possessed noun, but the personal possessives cover the pronoun owners (I, you, he…), while the possessive adjectives turn a named third party into a possessor. You say moj auto or Markov auto, never both at once.
Common Mistakes
❌ njegova brat
Incorrect — 'brat' is masculine, so 'his brother' must be 'njegov brat'; the ending tracks the noun, not the male owner.
✅ njegov brat
his brother — bare masculine 'njegov' to match masculine 'brat'.
❌ njegov sestra
Incorrect — 'sestra' is feminine, so even with a male owner the form is 'njegova'.
✅ njegova sestra
his sister — 'njegov' + '-a' agreeing with feminine 'sestra'.
❌ Ovo je moja auto.
Incorrect — 'auto' is masculine, so it takes 'moj', not feminine 'moja'.
✅ Ovo je moj auto.
This is my car. — masculine 'moj' for masculine 'auto'.
❌ Vidio sam tvoj brata.
Incorrect case — 'brata' is animate accusative, so the possessive must also inflect: 'tvojeg'.
✅ Vidio sam tvojeg brata.
I saw your brother. — accusative-animate 'tvojeg' agreeing with 'brata'.
❌ Razgovarali smo o vaš problem.
Incorrect — 'o' takes the locative, so both words inflect: 'o vašem problemu'.
✅ Razgovarali smo o vašem problemu.
We talked about your problem. — locative 'vašem problemu' after 'o'.
Key Takeaways
- The possessives are moj, tvoj, njegov, njezin/njen, naš, vaš (Vaš), njihov.
- Which pronoun is set by the owner's gender (njegov his / njezin her / njihov their); the ending is set by the thing owned.
- They agree fully in gender, number, and case, declining like adjectives: moja knjiga, njegovog brata, našim prijateljima.
- Learn two paradigms — soft pronominal for moj/tvoj/svoj, adjective-like for njegov/njezin/naš/vaš/njihov.
- In casual speech the possessive dative (Brat mi je…) often replaces the possessive pronoun for people.
Now practice Croatian
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Croatian→Related Topics
- The Reflexive Possessive svojB1 — When to use svoj instead of moj/tvoj/njegov.
- Possessive Adjectives (Markov, majčin)A2 — Deriving 'X's' adjectives from names and kin nouns.
- Adjective Declension: Hard StemsB1 — The full case paradigm of regular (hard-stem) adjectives.
- The Possessive (Sympathetic) DativeB1 — Using the dative for inalienable possession and affectedness.
- Adjective AgreementA1 — How adjectives match nouns in gender, number, and case.
- Possessive Adjective vs Genitive vs svojB1 — Three ways to say whose something is — the possessive adjective for a single human owner, the genitive for a modified or phrasal owner, and svoj when the owner is the subject.