Genitive reflexives (sín, síns)

The Genitive Reflexive Pronoun: "Sín"

When the subject of a sentence acts upon itself, we use a reflexive pronoun. In the genitive case, the third-person reflexive pronoun (meaning himself, herself, itself, or themselves) is sín.

Unlike possessive pronouns, sín never changes its form, regardless of the subject's gender or number. You will use it after verbs that require the genitive case, such as njóta (to enjoy), which gives us the phrase njóta sín (to thrive / enjoy oneself).

You will also use sín after prepositions that take the genitive. A very common expression is heim til sín (home to one's own place), because til (to) always requires the genitive. You will also see it in fixed phrases like sín á milli (among themselves).

The Reflexive Possessive: "Sinn" in the Genitive

When you want to say his own, her own, or their own, you use the reflexive possessive pronoun sinn. Because it acts like an adjective, it must agree with the noun it owns in gender, number, and case.

When the possessed noun is the object of a verb that takes the genitive (like sakna to miss, or gæta to watch over / take care of), the noun and the possessive pronoun both take the genitive case.

Here are the genitive forms for sinn:

Notice that the plural form is sinna for all genders.

For masculine and neuter nouns in the singular, use síns:

For feminine nouns in the singular, use sinnar:

For plural nouns of any gender, use sinna:

Bringing It Together

Sometimes you will use both the reflexive pronoun sín and the possessive sinn in the same sentence.

For example, the preposition milli (between) requires the genitive case for everything that follows it. When a subject feels a connection between herself and her own relatives, both pronouns take the genitive: