Possessive Pronouns

What are possessive pronouns?

Possessive pronouns are used to show that something belongs or relates to someone. In Swedish, some possessive pronouns change depending on whether the noun is an en word, an ett word, or plural.

English	En word	Ett word	Plural
my/mine	min	mitt	mina
your/yours (singular)	din	ditt	dina
his	hans	hans	hans
her/hers	hennes	hennes	hennes
its	dess	dess	dess
our/ours	vår	vårt	våra
your/yours (plural)	er	ert	era
their/theirs	deras	deras	deras

The form of min, din, vår, and er depends on the noun they refer to:

Det där är min bil.That is my car.

Det där är mitt hus.That is my house.

Det där är mina böcker.Those are my books.

Hans, hennes, dess, and deras have the same form regardless of the noun:

Det är hennes bil.It is her car.

Det är hennes hus.It is her house.

Det är hennes böcker.They are her books.

Swedish does not have separate forms corresponding to the English pairs my/mine, your/yours, her/hers, our/ours, and their/theirs. The same possessive forms can be used with or without a noun.

Dens is a genitive form of den used when referring to a person, especially when that person is specified by a following relative clause:

Journalisten pratade med dens flickvän som vann tävlingen.The journalist spoke to the girlfriend of the person who won the competition.

Here, the person referred to by dens won the competition. For things, Swedish normally uses dess instead.