Свой in Russian: His Own, Her Own, and When You Must Use It

Свой means one's own and points back to the subject of its clause. In the third person it decides the meaning: свою́ жену́ is his own wife, его́ жену́ is someone else's. With I, you and we it is optional.

The rule on one screen

The subject's own thing is coloured one way, someone else's the other:

In order: he loves his own wife, or another man's; she loves her own mum, or another woman's; they live in their own house, or in the house of other people; I love my mum, either way.

He, she, they: the meaning changes

English He loves his wife is ambiguous: his own, or another man's? Russian does not leave it to context:

• Он лю́бит свою́ жену́. - He loves his (own) wife.
• Он лю́бит его́ жену́. - He loves his wife. (the other man's, the one we were talking about)

The same goes for her and their:

• Она́ взяла́ свою́ кни́гу. - She took her (own) book.
• Она́ взяла́ её кни́гу. - She took her book. (another woman's)

Here свой is compulsory. Get it wrong and the sentence still makes sense; it just means something else, and the second wife example means something much more interesting than you intended.

I, you, we: both are fine

With a first- or second-person subject there is nobody else it could be, so свой and мой are both used:

• Я люблю́ свою́ ма́му. - I love my mum.
• Я люблю́ мою́ ма́му. - I love my mum.
• Ты взял свою́ кни́гу? - Did you take your book?

Neither is a mistake. Свой is common in speech here, and мой is common when you want to stress my against someone else's.

Свой declines like мой

Свой agrees with the thing owned in gender, number and case, exactly like мой (see Russian possessive pronouns). The case endings, in the colours of the cases chart:

The case comes from the noun's job, never from the owner:

• Он говори́т со свое́й жено́й. - He's talking to his wife. (instrumental after с)
• Она́ звони́т своему́ бра́ту. - She's ringing her brother. (dative)

Where свой cannot go

Свой points back to the subject, so it cannot be part of the subject:

In a longer sentence, свой points to the subject of its own clause, not of the whole sentence:

• Она́ зна́ет, что её брат до́ма. - She knows her brother is at home.

Here брат is the subject of the second clause, so свой is impossible and её does the job.

The one everyday exception is a have-sentence with у. The owner there is у него́, and свой points back to it:

• У него́ своя́ маши́на. - He has his own car.

Свой on its own: one of us

Without a noun, свой can mean one of our own people, someone who belongs:

• Он свой. - He's one of us.
• Ка́ждому своё. - To each his own.

Mistakes English speakers make

What to do next

Свой in all its cases is on the Pearson Edexcel GCSE Russian specification at Higher tier.

1. Say five sentences about what a friend owns, with свой: Он лю́бит свою́ маши́ну.
2. Swap in его́ and say what changed.
3. Do the drill below.