# Possessive adjectives (jego, nasi/nasze)



## DearPrudence

Hello everyone 

I am starting Polish so sorry for my basic questions.
I’ve tried to find a table with the different forms of the possessive adjectives but couldn’t find a complete one so I would really appreciate it if you could give me a hand here.

I am only talking about the nominative case here.

So, for “*his*”, it should always be “*jego*”, right, even when followed by a feminine noun? Or should it be “jeg” (as I seem to have read somewhere)
_Eg: To jest jego książki. ?
_ 
And finally, the few tables I have just say that for “our” + plural, it is “*nasi/nasze*” (same goes with “*wasi/wasze*”). Good, but in more concrete terms:
Nasi + masculine
Nasze + feminine ?
… + neutral?

Dziękuję 





SINGULARPLURALmasculinefeminineneutralmasculinefeminineneutralmymójmojamojemoimojemojeyourtwójtwojatwojetwoitwojetwojehisjego*jeg / jego ?*jegojegojegojegoherjejjejjejjejjejjejournasznaszanasze*nasi / nasze*yourwaszwaszawasze*wasi / wasze*theirichichichichichich


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## LilianaB

Hi DearPrudence. It should always agree with the subject not with object, so if the subject is a man, it will be jego, if a woman, it will be jej. Jeg is a mistake  -- it might be Norwegian. It is really more complicated than that. It also depends who is speaking, from whose point of view the sentence is created. If a third party is taking about a man, they would use jego. Widzę jego książki. But if the action is related to the subject -- it will be wziął swoje ksiażki instead of jego. He took his books.


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## DearPrudence

LilianaB said:


> Hi DearPrudence. It should always agree with the subject not with object, so if the subject is a man, it will be jego, if a woman, it will be jej. Jeg is a mistake  -- it might be Norwegian.


Thanks, Liliana, that answers my first question  What about "nasi/nasze"?
(but doesn't the possessive adjective also agree with the object? For instance, I am a man but I possess something that is feminine → "moja", not "mój" )


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## Roy776

You're right about the plurals.

Oni są nasi synami. (They are our sons) (Masculine)
One są nasze córkami. (They are our daughters) (Feminine)
One są nasze dziećmi. (They are our children) (Neutral)

Same goes for wasi and wasze. And I agree, it is a mistake. The third person possessive pronouns are never declined and they agree with the subject, not the object.
Maybe I should mention *swój*, when I say, that third person pronouns don't decline. This one is a half-exception, I'd say. It can be used in any person, but only if the subject is the same as the owner of the object.

*Siędzę w swoim samochodzie.* (I'm sitting in my car) BUT *Siędzę w jego samochodzie.* (Jego, maybe the car of a friend).
*Widzisz swojego syna?* (Do you see your son?) BUT *Widzisz mojego syna?* (Do you see my son?)
*On kocha swoją żonę.* (He loves his wife).

Those are just singular examples, but it works the same way in plural.


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## DearPrudence

Thank you two 

So now my table is complete and should be acurate (& I knew about "swój" but was more focused on that "nasi/nasze")




 SINGULARPLURAL masculinefeminineneutralmasculinefeminineneutralmymójmojamojemoimojemojeyourtwójtwojatwoketwoitwojetwojehisjegojegojegojegojegojegoherjejjejjejjejjejjej swójswojaswojeswoiswojeswojeournasznaszanaszenasinaszenaszeyourwaszwaszawaszewasiwaszewaszetheirichichichichichich


My table looks prettier with colours and borders and stuff but I can't reproduce it here


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## LilianaB

Yes, Roy, That's true, most of it, however some case should be different. _To są nasze córki _or _one są naszymi córkami_. 
_Oni są naszymi synami_. _To są nasi synowie_. 

_Siedzę w moim samochodzie_ is also common.
_Widzę mojego syna_, widzę moja mamę.
_Siedzę w jego samochodzie_.

I cannot explain all the rules, because I learned Polish the natural way, more than anything else.


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## Roy776

I learned that swój has to be used, unless you want to explicitly state that it's YOUR car, or YOUR son.
But you're right about the cases. I'll correct it.


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## LilianaB

Yes, you are right with _moje_, _mój_ but not _jego_. It depends from what point of view the sentence is created. _To jest jego_ _samochód_. To sa jego książki (plural) to jest jego żona. To jest jego syn.


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## Roy776

Yeah, but I mentioned the condition, that the owner must be the same as the subject.

On mówi, że to swój samochód. (He says, that it's his car.)
On mówi, że to jego samochód. (He says, that it's his car [the car of somebody else])


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## LilianaB

You cannot say Roy, _On mówi że to swój samochod_, only that _jego samóchod_.


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## Roy776

You're right again, I'm sorry. Found the mistake, I haven't really thought about it before posting the sentence.


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## Sobakus

DearPrudence said:


> Thanks, Liliana, that answers my first question  What about "nasi/nasze"?
> (but doesn't the possessive adjective also agree with the object? For instance, I am a man but I possess something that is feminine → "moja", not "mój" )



_Nasi_ is only for masculine personal, in all other cases it's _nasze_. As for agreeing with the object, the 3d person poessive pronouns (they are not adjectives mind you) are actually the Genetive singular forms of the corresponding personal pronouns (on, ona, ono, oni, one), therefore they can't be declined to agree with the noun they define. In all the other persons (mój, twój, nasz, wasz) they decline like normal adjectives.


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## LilianaB

Thank you Sobakus, I never really paid attention to things like that. I just know how to use them, but it is harder to explain it.


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## kknd

LilianaB said:


> Thank you Sobakus, I never really paid attention to things like that. I just know how to use them, but it is harder to explain it.



no personal hard feelings but i heard once a sentence: "you understand something when you can (successfully) explain it to somebody". other one was about learning through teaching (explaining)—so keep trying!


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## LilianaB

No its not true. Not in case of languages you speak naturally. Certain things are only known to language teachers of that language. If I thought about it more intently, I could have come to the same conclusion as Sabakus provided here.


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