How to use the reflexive adjective ‘свой’ in Russian?

The Russian reflexive adjective свой (transcribed svoy, meaning “one's own”) is used to express that the owner of something is the same as the subject of the sentence. Here is an example:

You will often find свой translated into Russian using a simple possessive adjective (e.g. “my,” “his,” “her,”...) in Russian, we use свой whenever this situation arises. Now, let’s take a closer look!

In Russian, свой (transcribed svoy, meaning “one's own”) is an adjective, and like other Russian adjectives, it is declined into many different forms. This is because it changes its ending to agree with the noun it modifies in case, number, and gender. For example:

Download the chart of all the forms of свой at the bottom of this page to see all the endings you may need. There are many forms, but don’t fret — many forms overlap. For example, genitive, dative, instrumental, and prepositional feminine are all the same form: своей (transcribed svaYEY).

In Russian, we can use reflexive adjectives when the owner of something is the same as the subject of the sentence. For example:

• Я люблю свою страну.

  Transcription: ya lyubLYU svaYU straNOO

  Translation: I love my (own) country.
• Он любит свою страну.

  Transcription: on LYUbit svaYU straNOO

  Translation: He loves his (own) country.

You may recall, though, that you can also use Russian possessive adjectives (the equivalent of “my” and “his” in English) to express a similar meaning. Compare the above examples with the ones below:

From these examples, you might be wondering why we need both reflexives and possessives, since in English these sentences are identical.

In Russian, we use the reflexive adjective to resolve an ambiguity that can exist in English. We’ll use that second sentence as an example.

Russians tend to use the reflexive adjective over the possessive adjective any time it might resolve some ambiguity. Compare:

• reflexive adjective

  Он любит свою страну.

  Transcription: on LYUbit svaYU straNOO

  Translation: He loves his (own) country.

  This can only mean he loves his own country. In Russian, you’ll generally use the reflexive adjective if this is your desired meaning, because it is clearer.
• possessive adjective

  Он любит его страну.

  Transcription: on LYUbit eeVO straNOO

  Translation: He loves his country.

  This can technically have either meaning. In Russian, though, people will generally assume you’re talking about someone else’s country (since you would have used the reflexive adjective otherwise!)

In general, this means that the difference between possessive adjectives and reflexive adjectives is most important in the 3rd person.

On the other hand, if you’re using the first person (I, we) or the second person (you) you’re a lot less likely to have any ambiguity to resolve, and so the reflexive adjective and the possessive adjectives have more-or-less the same meaning.

Unlike Russian reflexive pronouns, the reflexive adjective свой (transcribed svoy, meaning “one's own”) can be used to describe the subject of a sentence. But if the reflexive adjective refers back to the subject, how can it be referring back to itself?

The answer is that reflexive adjectives can refer to the logical subject of a sentence, even if that is not the grammatical subject. This often happens when свой is used with the verb есть (transcribed yest, meaning “be”). Consider the following examples.

• У неё есть свой дом.

  Transcription: oo neeYO yest svoy dom

  Translation: She has her own house.

  Literally: lit. By her there is her own house.

  Grammatically, свой дом is the subject, but logically the subject is неё.
• У каждого будет своё мнение.

  Transcription: oo KAZHdava BOOdyet svaYO MNYEneeye

  Translation: Everyone will have their own opinions.

  Literally: lit. By everyone will be their own opinions.

  Grammatically, своё мнение is the subject, but logically the subject is каждого.

The reflexive adjective свой is used in many Russian set expressions and idioms. For example:

In this post, we talked about the Russian reflexive adjective свой (transcribed svoy, meaning “one's own”). We saw that:

• Like other adjectives, свой is declined for case, number, and gender, and agrees with the noun it describes.

• We can use свой any time the possessor and the subject (logical or grammatical) are the same.

• We generally use свой rather than a possessive adjective if it helps us to resolve any potential ambiguity about who the possessive adjective refers to.

• This mostly happens in the 3rd person. In 1st and 2nd person, the reflexive adjectives and possessive adjectives are almost always interchangeable.

Now, are you ready to practice using possessive adjectives in Russian? Try out the activities linked below, or download our chart of all the forms of свой. Happy learning!