Possessive Pronouns in Slovene

Possessive pronouns in Slovene are also known as svojilni zaimek. Same as in English, they are a group of words that are used to indicate possession or ownership of something. It also answers the question word čigav, which means whose.

In Slovene, there are:

• three persons: first person, second person and third person,
• three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter and
• three grammatical numbers: singular, dual and plural.

In this end, there is a lot of subjects, which are the personal pronouns in first sklon. But possessive pronouns are simpler, as the gender distinction is only in singular third person.

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Personal Possessive Pronouns / Adjective

Here are the basic (first sklon) form of the personal possessive pronouns in Slovene for all three genders: masculine (m), feminine (ž) and neuter (s).

Singular Form – Ednina

	m	ž	s
Mine	moj*	moja	moje*
Your	tvoj*	tvoja	tvoje*
His Her Its	njegov njen njegov	njegova njena njegova	njegovo njeno njegovo

Dual Form – Dvojina

	m	ž	s
Our two	najin	najina	najin
Your two	vajin	vajina	najina
Their two	njun	njuna	njuno

Plural Form – Množina

	m	ž	s
Our	naš*	naša	naše*
Your	vaš*	vaša	vaše*
Their	njihov	njihova	njihovo

Reminder: * is the famous bracket (c, č, š, ž, j) where the o changes into e.

These possessive pronouns in Slovene are actually possessive determiners AND possessive pronouns in English. But in Slovene, they acts similar to Slovene adjectives, which means that they are declined following the corresponding noun. Remember that the gender of the subject matters for the singular third person (he, she, it – his, her, its).

Here’s a few examples as possessive determiners, which needs to be used with a noun.

• Moj pes¹ je bel (My dog is white).
• Jan nima njegovega telefona² (Jan doesn’t have his phone).
• Mina je njuno kosilo⁴ (Mina eats her lunch).
• Peter je šel z našim učiteljem⁶ (Peter went with our teacher).

Bonus: Slovene is a precise language, therefore:

• Filip je najin sin¹ (Filip is our son – both parents).

Here’s a few examples as possessive pronouns, which are used “alone”. But remember that the function of a pronouns is to replace a noun. Therefore, subject, gender and grammatical numbers all have to correspond.

• Čigava je hiša? Moja. (Whose house it is? Mine.)
• Čigav je pes? Njegov. (Whose dog it is? His.)
• Čigavo je kolo? Njeno. (Whose bicycle it is? Hers)

Bonus: “Ta” is masculine and also feminine. “To” is neuter.

• Ta je moj¹ (This is mine).
• Ta je moja¹ (This is mine).
• To je moje/naše/vaše¹ (This is mine/ours/yours).

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Reflexive Possessive Pronouns

In Slovene, there is reflexive possessive pronouns, known as povratni svojilni zaimek. It is used to express the property of the subject.

There is just “one word” used to express it for all the different subjects: svoj (one’s own) BUT it is declined by gender, grammatical numbers and skloni following the general table of endings, according

Singular Form – Ednina

	m	ž	s
SKLON 1	svoj	svoja	svoje
SKLON 2	svojega	svoje	svojega
SKLON 3	svojemu	svoji	svojemu
SKLON 4	svojega ❤ svoj	svojo	svoje
SKLON 5	svojem	svoji	svojem
SKLON 6	svojim	svojo	svojim

Here’s a few examples of reflexive possessive pronouns.

• Nina je svoje kosilo⁴ (Nina eats her own lunch).
• Mark nima svojega avta² (Mark doesn’t have his own car).
• Jan sedi pri svoji hiši⁵ (Jan sits by his own house).

Bonus: Look at the “slight” difference in meaning.

• Teja mu³ je prinesla njegov telefon⁴ (Teja brought him his phone).
• Teja mu³ je prinesla svoj telefon⁴ (Teja brought him her phone).

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Possessive Adjectives from Names

When a noun is the owner, the possessive adjective from names are used – svojilni pridevniki iz lastnih imen. In this case, you need to pay attention to the gender of the owner and the gender of the thing that is owned.

For masculine name, you add -ov + the corresponding ending in red.
For feminine name, you add -in and the corresponding ending in red.

JAN (Jan’s)		JANA (Jana’s)
Janov_*	brat (brother)	Janin_
Janova*	sestra (sister)	Janina
Janovo*	kolo (bicycle)	Janino

Reminder: * is the famous bracket (c, č, š, ž, j) where the o changes into e.

For example,

• Peter je Nikov dedek (Peter is Nik’s grandfather).
• Mirina hiša je najlepša (Mira’s house is the prettiest).
• Domnovo kolo je modro (Domen’s bicycle is blue).

Bonus: here are some exceptions:

• Peter – Petrov (Peter’s)
• Babica – Babičin (Grandmother’s)
• Oče – Očetov (Father’s)
• Stric – Stričev (Uncle’s)

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Expressing possession or ownership might seem confusing at first, mainly because there are “many of them”. My suggestion is to keep it simple. First, remember the “basic forms” then the rest will come naturally because they are declined as nouns and follows the general table of endings. Do keep in mind that all elements have to match (subject, gender, grammatical numbers)! If you have any questions, don’t hesitate and let me know!

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Discover more Slovene “lessons” that might interest you: Slovene Numbers & Numerals, Slovene Nouns & Pronouns, Slovene Verbs, Slovene Adjectives, Slovene Syntax, Slovenian Idioms, Slovene Adverbs.