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Swoje/Swoja versus Swoim/swoimi


rgines  2 | -  
6 Jun 2013 /  #1
New member trying Rosetta. Having trouble differentiating when to use swoją/swoje as opposed to swoim/swoimi? Can anyone help? Thanks!
cinek  2 | 347  
6 Jun 2013 /  #2
It's difficult to explain just in few words. They are different cases of 'swój' and the ordinary rules of noun/adjective declination apply to them.

You must learn about polish grammar cases system to understand it properly.

Cinek
Lyzko  
8 Jun 2013 /  #3
Ona idzie na spacer ze SWOIM synem. = She's taking a walk with HER son.

Ona idzie na spacer z jej synem. = She's taking walk with her, i.e some other woman's, son.

Pan ma SWOJE gazety w biurze, nieprawda? = You have YOUR (own) newspapers in the office, isn't that so?

Ewa przyniósła SWOJĄ książkę.....= Eve brought HER book........ (as opposed to somebody else's!)

Ojciec idzie na spacer ze SWOIMI córkami. = The father is taking a walk with HIS daughters.

In Polish, "swój-" usually refers to one's own.
Lyzko  
9 Jun 2013 /  #4
Widzę PANA gazetę. = I see your (singular polite!) paper. "SWOJĄ" would be wrong in this sentence, as the use of "your" is not reflexive here:-) In the above example, "Pan ma.....", the subject "pan" is referring to "his own", whereas in "Widzę pana.....", I'm an outsider looking inside, not the other way round.

Understand now?

PS
A number of other languages have this idea of "someone's" (else's) vs. "someone's OWN"! Danish and Swedish as well as Russian make this distinction also.

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