Breakdown of De skyddar sin egen investering.
de
they
sin
his/her/its/their own (en-word)
skydda
to protect
egen
own
investeringen
the investment
Questions & Answers about De skyddar sin egen investering.
Why do we use egen here instead of egna? Normally, adjectives after a possessive get an "-a".
This is the big exception for the word "own"! Unlike normal adjectives that take an -a after a possessive pronoun (like sin stora investering), the word for "own" uses its indefinite forms instead: egen (en-words), eget (ett-words), and egna (plural). Since investering is a singular en-word, we use egen.
Why is the word for "their" sin and not deras in this sentence?
We use sin because the investment belongs to the subject of the sentence (De). They are protecting their own investment. If we used deras here (De skyddar deras egen investering), it would mean they are protecting some other group's investment.
De is plural ("they"). So why do we use the singular sin instead of the plural sina?
The possessive pronoun always matches the thing being owned, not the owner! Even though "they" (De) are many people, they are protecting one single investment (investering, an en-word). If they were protecting multiple investments, it would change to match the plural: sina egna investeringar.
Why is it investering and not the definite form investeringen?
In Swedish, whenever a noun follows a possessive word (like sin, min, or deras), the noun must be in its indefinite form. Even though we are talking about a specific investment, the possessive pronoun already makes it definite enough, so we say sin egen investering.
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