Breakdown of Kvinnan ställer sin gräsklippare på hans uppfart.
kvinnan
the woman
på
on / at / for (wait for) / in (believe in)
hans
his
sin
his/her/its/their own (en-word)
ställa
to put
uppfarten
the driveway
gräsklipparen
the lawnmower
Questions & Answers about Kvinnan ställer sin gräsklippare på hans uppfart.
Why is it sin gräsklippare instead of hennes gräsklippare?
In Swedish, when a "third person" subject (he, she, it, or they) owns the object being talked about, we must use the reflexive possessive sin (or sitt/sina). Because the woman is the subject of the sentence and she is moving her own lawnmower, we use sin. If we used hennes, it would mean she is putting some other woman's lawnmower on the driveway!
Why do we use hans uppfart at the end of the sentence instead of sin uppfart?
The word sin always points back to the subject of the sentence (the woman). The driveway belongs to a man ("his driveway"), so it doesn't belong to the subject. Because of this strict rule, we cannot use sin here; we must use the regular possessive word hans.
Why is the form sin used here, rather than sitt or sina?
The form of the reflexive possessive must match the gender and number of the noun it describes. Since gräsklippare is a singular en-word, we use sin. If she were parking a vehicle (an ett-word, like ett fordon), it would be sitt fordon, and if there were multiple mowers, it would be sina gräsklippare.
Why does the Swedish sentence use ställer for "puts"? Could I use lägger?
Swedish has different words for "putting" things depending on how they end up positioned. ställer means to put something in a standing or upright position. A lawnmower rests upright on its wheels, so we "stand" it. If you were putting down a flat object, like a tarp or a cable, you would use lägger (lays).
Since we are talking about a specific lawnmower, why isn't it in the definite form (sin gräsklipparen)?
In Swedish, you almost never use the definite form of a noun after a possessive pronoun. Words like min, hans, and sin already do the job of making the noun specific. So, it is always sin gräsklippare, much like it is always "my car" and never "my the car" in English.
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