# Slovak: possessives



## Boileau419

Do possessive adjectives take the gender of the possessor (as in English)or that of the possessed (as in French)?

Jesus' mother= _*his*_ mother or *sa* mère in Slovak? Jeho or jej? 

If a female says "my brother" would the word for "my" in Slovak be masculine or feminine ? Môj or moja?


----------



## sokol

Boileau419 said:


> If a female says "my brother" would the word for "my" in Slovak be masculine or feminine ? Môj or moja?


It has to be moja surely - the French way of taking the gender of the possessed is the exception; in most IE languages (and I'd guess in all Slavic languages?!) a woman says 'moja' = fem. and a man says 'moj' = masc. - and surely in Slovak too.


----------



## mateo19

The possessive adjective will always agree with the gender of the noun, never with the gender of the person who says it.  For example:

môj otec, moja matka, moje auto

The môj, moja or moje here is changing its form to accommodate for the masculine, feminine or neuter gender of the object possessed.  It's just like French: mon père but ma mère.  On the other hand, Slovak is unlike French in that it has separate words for “his” and “her”.

Whether a male or a female says "my brother", it will always be, "môj brat".

Watch out though, because in Slovak "his", "her" and "their" do not change.  They only have one form and so gender no longer matters:

jeho brat / jeho sestra, jej brat / jej sestra and ich brat / ich sestra

  I hope that answered your question!  Ah, what did you mean that English takes the gender of the possessor while French takes the gender of the possessed?  That didn't make any sense to me.

And by the way everyone, I have now reached 500 posts!!!


----------



## Mišo

Mateo said everything in lieu of me.  Is anything else unintelligible?


----------



## werrr

These possessives are pronouns in Slovak.

Semantically they are in agreement with the possessor, but their endings are in agreement with the possessed. It’s the same in English and French, except that English lost the endings and French possessives coincide for both genders (il → son/sa, elle → son/sa). 

The possessives “môj” (1st sg.), “tvoj” (2nd sg.), “náš” (1st pl.), “váš” (2nd pl.) and “svoj” (reflexive) are identical for all genders of the possessor, but they reflect the gender (incl. animateness), case and number of the possessed in this way:

SINGULAR
case  | masc. anim. | masc. inan. | fem.  | neut.
================================================
N    | môj         | môj         | moja  | moje
G    | môjho       | môjho       | mojej | môjho
D    | môjmu       | môjmu       | mojej | môjmu    
A    | môjho       | môj         | moju  | moje
L    | mojom       | mojom       | mojej | mojom
I    | mojím       | mojím       | mojou | mojím 

PLURAL
case  | masc.   | fem. / neut.
============================
N    | moji   | moje
G    | mojich | mojich
D    | mojim  | mojim
A    | mojich | moje
L    | mojich | mojich
I    | mojimi | mojimi

The 3rd person possessives reflect the gender and number of the possessor: “jeho” (sg. masc./neut.), “jej” (sg. fem.) and “ich” (pl.). These forms are indeclinable and thus doesn’t reflect the possessed in any way.


----------



## Boileau419

In English if the possessor is feminine, you have "her" instead of "his" or "its". In French it is the possessed that dictates the gender of the adjective in all cases. 

Slovak has a mixed system


----------



## jazyk

> Watch out though, because in Slovak "his", "her" and "their" do not change. They only have one form and so gender no longer matters:
> 
> jeho brat / jeho sestra, jej brat / jej sestra and ich brat / ich sestra


The same is true for Czech, except that její (her) declines in the plural (její, bez jejích, k jejím, její, její, s jejími, o jejích). What about Slovak?


----------



## werrr

Boileau419	R said:
			
		

> In English if the possessor is feminine, you have "her" instead of "his" or "its". In French it is the possessed that dictates the gender of the adjective in all cases.
> 
> Slovak has a mixed system



You confuse the gender of the very possessive with the gender of its form.

The standard is that the possessive is driven by both possessor and possessed, since the function of the possessive is to establish some link between possessor and possessed.
The possessor drives semantically the used possessive and the possessed drives syntactically the form of the possessive.

Slovak is standard in this respect. Both French and English are degenerated. English lost the syntactical agreement (not only for the possessives, but in general), and in French the possessives always semantically coincide for different genders.

In other words, English “his”, “her” and “its” are three different possessives (which coincide in all forms), while French “son” and “sa” (and “ses”) are two (three) different forms of one single possessive (which coincides for genders).



			
				jazyk said:
			
		

> Watch out though, because in Slovak "his", "her" and "their" do not change. They only have one form and so gender no longer matters:
> 
> jeho brat / jeho sestra, jej brat / jej sestra and ich brat / ich sestra
> 
> 
> 
> The same is true for Czech, except that její (her) declines in the plural (její, bez jejích, k jejím, její, její, s jejími, o jejích).
Click to expand...

No, it is not true for Czech. The Czech “his” and “its” has one single form “jeho”, but Czech “her” (její) declines in both singular and plural and it reflects the genders in singular.


----------



## jazyk

> No, it is not true for Czech. The Czech “his” and “its” has one single form “jeho”, but Czech “her” (její) declines in both singular and plural and it reflects the genders in singular.


That's what I said, no? Or at least that's what I thought I said. Anyway, I agree with you.


----------

