Breakdown of Företaget fäller sina träd eftersom de skymmer vår gata.
de
they
trädet
the tree
gatan
the street
vår
our (vår/vårt/våra)
företaget
the company
sina
his/her/its/their own (plural)
eftersom
since, because
fälla
to cut down
skymma
to obscure
Questions & Answers about Företaget fäller sina träd eftersom de skymmer vår gata.
Why do we use sina instead of dess for "its" here?
In Swedish, when the subject of the clause owns the object, you must use the reflexive possessive sin/sitt/sina. Here, the subject is Företaget (the company) and it owns the trees. If you used dess träd, it would mean the company is cutting down some other company's or thing's trees.
Since Företaget is a singular owner, shouldn't it be sitt träd? Why use the plural sina?
English possessives match the owner ("his", "her", "its"). In Swedish, sin/sitt/sina must agree with the thing being owned, not the owner. Even though there is only one company, the things it owns (the trees) are plural. Therefore, we use the plural form sina. If the company were only cutting down one tree, it would be sitt träd.
How can you tell that träd is plural in this sentence?
The noun träd is an ett-word that doesn't change in the plural (ett träd, flera träd). However, we have two strong clues in this sentence: the possessive sina is the plural form, and the pronoun de (they) in the second half of the sentence refers back to the trees.
Could we use sin gata instead of vår gata at the end of the sentence?
No, for two reasons. First, the street belongs to "us", so we need vår. Second, the rule for sin/sitt/sina is that it always refers back to the subject of its own clause. The subject of the second clause is de (the trees). Since the trees don't own the street, we cannot use sin here.
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