Learn how to use the possessive pronoun sin
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Intro |
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| Hi everybody! Anette here. Welcome to Ask a Teacher, where I’ll answer some of your most common Norwegian questions. |
| The Question |
| The question for this lesson is… When do I use the possessive pronoun sin? |
| Explanation |
| The Norwegian possessive pronoun system is a bit complicated, and it can be difficult to know when you should use sin instead of the possessive pronouns hans meaning “his,” hennes meaning “hers,” or deres meaning “theirs.” |
| Sin translates as “his,” “hers,” “its” and “theirs” so it's easy to get confused. |
| Sin is the reflexive form of hans or hennes and deres. Sin is used for something that is one's own. In other words, when the subject owns the object. Let's have a look at an example. |
| Ola vasker bilen sin. This literally means, “Ola washes his own car.” |
| If you change sin to hans meaning “his,” the meaning of the sentence changes. |
| For instance, Ola vasker bilen hans means “Ola washes his car.” This means that Ola is washing someone else's car, not his own. |
| Let's have a look at two more examples-- |
| Han glemte sekken sin, literally meaning, “He forgot his own backpack.” |
| Here, the backpack that was lost belongs to the subject, so we need to use sin. |
| In this sentence, Han glemte sekken hans, or “He forgot his backpack,” it means he forgot someone else's backpack. |
| Sin also conjugates in the gender and the plural of the noun. Sin is used for the masculine singular form, si is for the feminine singular form, sitt is for the neuter singular form, and sine for the plural form. |
| Let's see some examples with the conjugated forms of sin. |
| Hun mistet sekken sin. - “She lost her (own) backpack.” |
| Sekk meaning “backpack” is a masculine noun, therefore you use sin. |
| Han mistet boka si. - “He lost his (own) book.” |
| Bok meaning “book” is feminine, so you have to use si. |
| Han ryddet huset sitt. - “He tidied his (own) house.” |
| Hus meaning “house” is a neuter noun, so you use sitt. |
| And last, Hun skal støvsuge alle teppene sine meaning “She is going to vacuum clean all her (own) carpets.” |
| Teppe meaning “carpet” is in the plural form, so you use sine. |
| Before we close up this lesson, it's important to know that you can only use sin, si, sitt and sine with objects. You can not use sin, si, sitt and sine with subjects. |
| Here’s an example-- |
| Sekken hans er gammel. meaning “His backpack is old.” |
| In this sentence, the noun sekk, meaning “backpack” is the subject, so you can’t use sin. |
| And Han glemte sekken sin. - “He forgot his backpack.” |
| In this case, the backpack is the object, so you use sin. |
Outro |
| How was this lesson? Pretty interesting right? |
| Do you have any more questions? Leave them in the comments below and I’ll try to answer them! |
| Hade. Vi sees snart! “Bye. See you soon!” |
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