# свой



## thedeadlymino

Привет!

Learning with Rosetta Stone is certainly more effective than anything I've tried previously, but the lack of translation makes grammar a bit difficult at times.
For example:
The usage of свой confuses me.

Я люблю своего брата. - Looks to me like it means "I love his brother.", although I can logically translate the sentence as "I love my brother."

or

Я люблю свою сестру. - Which I can very easily translate as "I love my sister."

Can anyone explain how to use свой?

Спасибо!


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## Saluton

Свой - one's own. I'm not sure why you would distinguish between брат and сестра.

Я люблю своего брата = I love my brother. (Я люблю моего брата doesn't sound right)
Я люблю его брата = I love his brother.

Я люблю свою сестру = I love my sister. (not Я люблю мою сестру)
Я люблю его сестру = I love his sister.

Они любят своих сестёр = They love their sisters.
Они любят его сестёр = They love his sisters.

etc.
See the difference?


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## Thomas1

Would the following be true in Russian?
If the subject of the sentence ("я" in the sentence from the original post) is the same as the "owner" of the object ("брат"), and in the sentence under discussion this is clearly the case, you usually use "свой" (if a possessive adjective/pronoun is needed), but, if they are different, you use "мой":_Я люблю своего брата. -- I love my brother. _[I am the "owner".] 
_Возьми мой портфель. -- Take my briefcase. _[You're not the owner of the briefcase, I am.]​
If you want to add some contrast, you can also use "мой":_Я взял мой портфель, не твой. -- I took my briefcase, not yours._​


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## Linguoman

Thomas1 said:


> If the subject of the sentence ("я" in the sentence from the original post) is the same as the "owner" of the object ("брат"), and in the sentence under discussion this is clearly the case, you usually use "свой" (if a possessive adjective/pronoun is needed), but, if they are different, you use "мой":



That is right.



Thomas1 said:


> If you want to add some contrast, you can also use "мой":_Я взял мой портвель, не твой. -- I took my briefcase, not yours._​




Свой is still possible here.​


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## Maroseika

Thomas1 said:


> Would the following be true in Russian?
> If the subject of the sentence ("я" in the sentence from the original post) is the same as the "owner" of the object ("брат"), and in the sentence under discussion this is clearly the case, you usually use "свой" (if a possessive adjective/pronoun is needed), but, if they are different, you use "мой":_Я люблю своего брата. -- I love my brother. _[I am the "owner".]
> _Возьми мой портфель. -- Take my briefcase. _[You're not the owner of the briefcase, I am.]​



I think your observation is correct in general. Possessive pronouns *мой, твой, наш, ваш* are used instead of *свой *in order to underline connection with the owner - for style or to avoid ambiguity. 

Возьми свой портфель. (your briefcase)
Возьми твой портфель (а не чей-либо еще). 

Same problem occurs in the indirect cases: Я попросил его забрать свой портфель. 
To avoid ambiguity, in such cases better to say *его *or *мой *портфель, depending on what's really meant.


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## Thomas1

Thank you, both. 
Out of curiosity, would both "свой" and "мой" be possible in the following sentence?_Я люблю своего/моего брата не твоего._​


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## Maroseika

Thomas1 said:


> Out of curiosity, would both "свой" and "мой" be possible in the following sentence?_Я люблю своего/моего брата, (а) не твоего._​



Yes, both are possible. But variant with моего expresses stronger relation with the "object" and therefore it is more emotionally coloured.


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## Thomas1

Thanks. So does the option with "моего" exress stronger contrast than the one with "своего"?


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## Maroseika

Thomas1 said:


> Thanks. So does the option with "моего" exress stronger contrast than the one with "своего"?


Yes. But I would call it underlining rather than contrast. In fact, there may be no contrast at all:
Я люблю моего брата и сделаю для него все.


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## thedeadlymino

Saluton said:


> Свой - one's own. I'm not sure why you would distinguish between брат and сестра.
> 
> Я люблю своего брата = I love my brother. (Я люблю моего брата doesn't sound right)
> Я люблю его брата = I love his brother.
> 
> Я люблю свою сестру = I love my sister. (not Я люблю мою сестру)
> Я люблю его сестру = I love his sister.
> 
> Они любят своих сестёр = They love their sisters.
> Они любят его сестёр = They love his sisters.
> 
> etc.
> See the difference?



I think I'm just having trouble figuring out why it would change from своего to свою just from brother to sister.
Isn't своего - his own
And свою - my own?


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## Thomas1

Because the noun "sister" in Russian (сестра) is feminine. That means adjectives that modify it take on different case endings than the ones if the noun is masculine or neuter. Here you can find declension patterns (scroll down the page).


EDIT: the following excerpt from the page I linked to above might be useful:

There is also a particular pronoun свой in Russian, called reflexive possessive pronoun, that means 'one's own'  and reflects ownership to subject of the verb in a phrase. This pronoun  can be used only if the possessor and the subject are in the same  phrase. Generally, the reflexive possessive pronoun can replace any  possessive pronoun, but it is specially required if the subject of the  verb is one of the third person personal pronouns он, она, они.
http://www.study-languages-online.com/russian-possessive-pronouns.html​


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## bibax

thedeadlymino said:


> I think I'm just having trouble figuring out why it would change from своего to свою just from brother to sister.


The adjectives, possessive/demonstrative pronouns and other "adjectivals" (adiectivalia) always agree with the governing noun in gender, case and number.


thedeadlymino said:


> Isn't своего - his own
> And свою - my own?


Not always.


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## thedeadlymino

Is this worth learning the specifics or should I just keep going and it'll come with time?


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## Maroseika

thedeadlymino said:


> Is this worth learning the specifics or should I just keep going and it'll come with time?



Just remember that unlike English, Russian adhectives and pronouns agree in gender with their nouns. Therefore the choice between свой, своя, своё depends only on the governed noun.
As for the choice свой/мой, this is more difficult issue, and even many natives often mistake.


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## Q-cumber

Saluton said:


> Свой - one's own. I'm not sure why you would distinguish between брат and сестра.
> 
> Я люблю своего брата = I love my brother. (Я люблю моего брата doesn't sound right)
> Я люблю его брата = I love his brother.
> 
> Я люблю свою сестру = I love my sister. (not Я люблю мою сестру)
> Я люблю его сестру = I love his sister.
> 
> Они любят своих сестёр = They love their sisters.
> Они любят его сестёр = They love his sisters.
> 
> etc.
> See the difference?


Я люблю мою сестру sounds as right & good as я люблю свою сестру. In the first person and in the second person both pronouns (мой / свой) can be safely used. However, мой sounds kind of more 'possessive', so to speak. In the third person we normally use the pronoun свой.


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## igusarov

thedeadlymino said:


> Я люблю своего брата. - Looks to me like it means "I love his brother.", although I can logically translate the sentence as "I love my brother."


Are you confused because "сво*его*" is spelled similar to "*его*"? It is a mere coincidence. For example, the accusative case of the word "синий" (blue) may also have the same ending: "син*его*". But this ending doesn't mean it has anything to do with possessive pronoun "его".


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## Drink

igusarov said:


> Are you confused because "сво*его*" is spelled similar to "*его*"? It is a mere coincidence. For example, the accusative case of the word "синий" (blue) may also have the same ending: "син*его*". But this ending doesn't mean it has anything to do with possessive pronoun "его".



Actually it is not a coincidence. The endings of "сво*его*" and "син*его*" have the same origin as "*его*".


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## thedeadlymino

So I was thinking of the pronouns in more of a 1st, 2nd, 3rd person way which is why I was confused. I though Свою was "my own" because of ю, but it's jus the feminine version of Свой.
This RussianLessons.net Article was very helpful in clearing that up and in hindsight should've been one of the first places I looked, but thank you all for your help, I appreciate it greatly!


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## igusarov

Drink said:


> Actually it is not a coincidence. The endings of "сво*его*" and "син*его*" have the same origin as "*его*".


Now I'm surprised! Where can I read more about it?


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## bibax

The ending of сво*его*/син*его* is, in fact, the anaphoric pronoun *jь* (masc.) in genitive singular: *его* (сина + *его* gives син*его*). It is also gen. sing. of the personal pronoun *он *(instead of оного).

A thread about the definite adjectives is here.


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## igusarov

Thank you for the link, bibax!


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## RussianAndrew

Hello everybody. I'm new here. I study English. I'm not philologist, but I think I can be helpful with Russian language.

I want to say  about "*свой*".
You can say phrase with the same meaning using
"твой, мой, его, её" or "свой"

Я оставил *свой* мобильник (мобильный телефон) дома.* = *Я оставил *мой* мобильник (мобильный телефон) дома.
I left *my* cell phone (mobile phone) at home.

"твой, мой, его, её" (your, my, his or her) shows directly who owner is (you, me, he or she)

Дай мне *твой* портфель. Give me *your* briefcase.
Дай мне *мой* портфель. Give me *my* briefcase.
...

But in case with word "*свой*" the owner is person who is acting with the thing.

*Я* оставил *свой* мобильник дома.
*I* left *my* cell phone at home.

*Он* оставил *свой* мобильник дома.
*He* left *his* cell phone at home.

How you can see "свой" can mean (your, my, his or her)  depending about whom we are speaking.

I think we use "свой" to emphasize importance who is owner.
There are  two opposite notions in Russian "свой" and "чужой"

Выйдя  из бани, Я не обнаружил своих трусов, на месте где я их оставил лежали  чужие трусы. Видимо кто-то взял мои по ошибке. Пришлось одевать брюки на  голое тело.

Наша собака никогда не лает на своих людей,  но чужих не пропустит в дом без лая.

Своя рубашка ближе к телу. (Russian proverb about selfish people.)

I think using of  "свой" a little more complicated, than "твой, мой, его, её". 

*Иван*, принеси мне *свой* портфель.
*Ivan*, bring me *your* briefcase.

Иван, *Я* хочу *свой* портфель обратно.
Ivan, *I *want *my* briefcase back.


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## Gerasim

Свой=own
Мой=my
And for sure Свой can be used as impersonal pronoun.
Examples.
Свой дом лучше.-Own house(home) is better. So if somebody says this it doesn't mean he means His house.Just in general anyone´s.
Мой дом лучше.-My house (home) is better.   It's clear whose the house is.

And Свой depends on often the context.The same as and "Own"


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## angelosExploreRussian

You can find a useful guide on свой here.


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