What is СВОЙ in Russian Language

[amjan]

LOOK HERE TO UNDERSTAND the power of this word:
1. "He gave me her phone" -- You can see the giver and the owner of the phone are 2 different people.
2. "He gave me his phone". -- But here in English you have no way of knowing if HE and HIS refer to the same person.
Did he give me his own phone or his brother's? We can't tell.

But in Slavic languages (Russian, Polish etc) you will be precise about it:
3. Он дал мне свой телефон. - He (John) gave me his own phone.
4. Он дал мне эго телефон. - He (John) gave me his (=Paul's) phone.

[AodhanBulger]

I just looked it up on a hunch, and the English word "self" goes back etymologically to a Proto-Indo-European word, swé, which was a reflexive pronoun meaning "self." All Slavic words which sound like "svoj" come from this.

[ЕвгенийБогданов-чт]

I'm in love with my language so I like watching Fyodor and talk to foreigners about russian language, give advices, explain something. But this is the first time when I have no idea how to explain this word and difference between мой и свой :)))
I might just add that russians prefer using "свой" in any acceptable case over "мой". And using "твой, мой" instead of "свой" won't be a mistake but just won't sound distinctive for russian listener.

[lonyaofnevada]

Они купили свой дом = they bought their(own) house. Correct me if I am wrong :D

[jucrecr]

In spanish the possesive pronoun "su" works the same maner. Su (de él, his); su (de ella, her), su (de usted, your), etc. "They bought their house"

[Rondi]

Свой works like the English adjective own. It marks a reflexive possession.

[teodortodorovski]

We've got the same exact word (Свој/Своја/Свое/Свои) here on the Balkans. You can use the same exact word in a sentence, but the meaning is going to change depending on the subject. I'll give examples in Macedonian because that's my mother tongue:
Јас го сакам својот телефон.
- I love my phone.
Тој го сака својот телефон.
- He loves his phone.
As far as I know, serbs and croatians use this word as well.

[Marco-pirc]

Dude that is so simple and awesome at the same time! Love it!

[thetrillianaire]

A difficult thing for native English speakers is remembering when one HAS to use свой. We tend to have a bad habit of saying "она нашла её дом" when we mean "свой дом". In Russian она нашла её дом would mean that the woman who is the subject of the sentence found a house belonging to a different woman, and not her own house. I mess this up all the time when I'm talking and not thinking.

[noblecollins]

Thanks for this update because I used to get lost at how diverse it's used

[osmanika]

In Turkish we have a similar word, "kendi" which also means one's own, and is reliant on the subject.

[dominikstepien]

There is a word "swój" in Polish which means the same as "свой" and also changes meaning depending on subject, I'm not sure if counts for you

[qustosh]

in polish we have the word swój which functions and means basically the same

[mateuszroscisaw]

In Polish we also use word "swój" "swoja" "swoje" and it has the same meaning as in Russian :)

[anechka]

I thought I can already construct short sentences in Russian. And then.. this! T_T Ages man! Will take me ages!!

[Alet]

So why wouldn't you say "Я люблю мой телефон"? Is there any subtle difference in meaning between using свой and the respective possessive pronoun?

[mrrheng]

Thank you so much been struggling with this for so long

[rksb]

hey Fedor, thank you so much for teaching us Russian. I wanted to know if you suggest any book that explains the grammar of the Russian language. Thank you.

[GianASMR]

thank you man, i appreciate these videos. you explain little things that are actually very important!

[GuitarreroDaniel]

Большое спасибо за урок! I frequently come to this lesson because god knows why I keep forgetting this word.