mój vs. swój

Please, what is the difference between swój and mój?

For example, if a girl says "to swoja ziomalka", whz does she use swoja instead of moja?

moj and swoj has similar meaning - which one should be used? it depends on context...but i think that swoj is hardly ever used... and by the way - it should be 'to moja ziomalka'...... 'to swoja ziomalka' doesn't make any sense...

but hell..i'm not good at grammar :D sorry ;)

examples:

to moj pies - it's my dog
to moje - it's mine
nienawidze tracic swojego czasu - i hate wasting my time

but the last sentence could be also translated as nienawidze tracic mojego czasu

so you can use both words in this case.....well it's complicated :D sometimes you can use both, simetimes one just sounds better that another and that's it ;)

Mój = My
Swój = One's own

Swój can mean it's, mine, his, hers, theirs, ours, yours

Mój is a relative pronoun and swój is a reflexive pronoun swój, swój being the possessive of siebie (oneself, myself).

Here's an example:
Ona wsiadła do swojego samochodu - she got into her (own) car.
On wsiadł z nią do jej samochodu - he got with her into her car.

Generally whenever my own, his own her own etc is the meaning then swój may be used.

Look through the forums, as this question has been asked before and there may be more comprehensive explanations than mine.
Also, you'll pick up the difference in usage as you go along, so don't spend too much time on it :)

Swój do swego po swoje -- was a slogan used in prewar Poland to urge support for Polish-owned business, similar to the "Buy British' campaign.

in this case "swój/ swoja/" it's kind of colloquial speech meaning that this person is friendly, outgoing, trustworthy and helpful...

Saw recently in a Polish magazine ad "Bądź panią swego życia" = Be YOUR (as opposed to someone else's-:) lol) own woman.

Usually swój is used with context..

Czy powiedziałem Ci że mam swój własny dom?
Did I tell you I have my own house?
Since there's 'mam' and 'swój' there it indicates 'swój' is referring to the first person

Dlaczego nie powiedziałaś mi że masz swój własny dom?
Why didn't you tell m you have you're own house?
Since there's 'masz' and 'swój' it indicates 'swój' is referring to the second person

It always confused me how to know who 'swój' referred to so I thought I'd explain...

While the usage of possessive pronouns may vary by the region, general level of literacy some basic rules, which when broken do not break the communication, are as follows:

Swoj is a generic possessive pronoun that is applied to all persons and genders (inflection still applies)

If you talk about a person whose object you have in mind the you use "swoj". Otherwise you use appropriate pronoun.

Example:

1. I like my city - (ja) lubie swoje miasto
2. He like his city - on lubi swoje miasto

3. He likes my city - On lubi moje miasto
4. I like his city - (ja) lubie jego miasto.

Some grammatical twisters are:

a)
He likes his city - On lubi jego miasto

as opposed to example #2 here he is not the same person as referred to by his, i.e "he like someone's else's city".

b)
(ja) lubie moje miasto is still correct (compare example #1)