In English, a sentence like "Jón prints his document" is ambiguous. Is it Jón's own document, or does it belong to someone else? Icelandic removes this ambiguity by distinguishing between the reflexive possessive and regular possessive pronouns.
Reflexive possessive: sinn
When the object belongs to the 3rd-person subject of the sentence (he, she, it, or they), use the reflexive possessive sinn ("one's own").
Because sinn acts like an adjective, it must change its form to match the gender, number, and case of the object being owned. In this lesson, we will see it in the accusative case, which is triggered by verbs like prenta (to print), lesa (to read), and opna (to open).
Accusative singular forms of sinn:
| Gender | Accusative |
|---|---|
| Masculine | sinn |
| Feminine | sína |
| Neuter | sitt |
Regular possessives: hans, hennar, þeirra
When the object belongs to someone else (not the subject), use the regular possessive pronouns: hans (his), hennar (her), or þeirra (their).
Unlike sinn, these words are invariable, meaning they never change form, regardless of the object's gender, number, or case.
Comparing the two
With a neuter object like skjal (document), notice how the pronoun changes depending on exactly who owns the document Jón is printing:
| Jón prints his (own) document. | Jón prentar skjalið sitt. |
| Jón prints her document. | Jón prentar skjalið hennar. |
With a masculine noun like samningur (contract), the reflexive pronoun becomes the masculine accusative sinn, while hans remains unchanged:
| The boss needs to read his (own) contract. | Stjórinn þarf að lesa samninginn sinn. |
| The boss also needs to read his (someone else's) contract. | Stjórinn þarf líka að lesa samninginn hans. |
Feminine objects
For feminine nouns like mús (mouse) or mappa (folder), the reflexive pronoun becomes sína. The invariable pronouns (hans, hennar, þeirra) stay exactly the same.
| Does she lend her (own) mouse? | Lánar hún músina sína? |
| No, she lends their mouse. | Nei, hún lánar músina þeirra. |
| The student opens his (own) folder. | Nemandinn opnar möppuna sína. |
| But the teacher opens his (someone else's) folder. | En kennarinn opnar möppuna hans. |
To summarize: if the subject owns it, match sinn to the object. If someone else owns it, just use hans, hennar, or þeirra and do not change their form!