In English, "He washes his car" is ambiguous: is it his own car, or another man's? Swedish eliminates this by using reflexive possessives when a third-person subject (he, she, it, they) owns the object.
- Use sin, sitt, or sina if the object belongs to the subject ("their own").
- Use hans, hennes, dess, or deras if it belongs to someone else.
The form matches the gender and number of the noun being owned, not the owner.
| En-word | Ett-word | Plural | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| sin | sitt | sina | his/her/its/their own |
Sin (En-words)
Compare these sentences. Notice how sin means "his own," while hans means the car belongs to another man:
| The man washes his (own) car. | Mannen tvättar sin bil. |
| The woman washes his car. | Kvinnan tvättar hans bil. |
| The father reads his (own) book in the house. | Pappan läser sin bok i huset. |
| He drops his (own) key. | Han tappar sin nyckel. |
Sitt (Ett-words)
Use sitt for singular ett-words:
| The boy forgets his (own) umbrella. | Pojken glömmer sitt paraply. |
| The child holds its (own) apple. | Barnet håller sitt äpple. |
Sina (Plural)
Use sina for plural nouns. This applies even with multiple owners ("they"), as long as the subjects act on their own things:
| They sell their (own) cars. | De säljer sina bilar. |
| He sells their cars. | Han säljer deras bilar. |
| The mother hugs her (own) children. | Mamman kramar sina barn. |
| She hugs his dogs. | Hon kramar hans hundar. |
In Questions
The rule applies exactly the same way in questions:
| Does the girl fetch her (own) umbrella? | Hämtar flickan sitt paraply? |
| Is the man looking for his (own) jacket? | Söker mannen sin jacka? |
(Note: Because *sin, sitt, and sina refer back to the subject of the clause, they can never be the subject themselves!)*
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