Duolingo Polish Grammar: Chapter XIII. - Possessives: Nominative - Accusative - Instrumental - Genitive. Vocabulary and Grammar: swój.

 D. Chapter XII. ↔︎ Chapter XIV.

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Polish Grammar: Chapter XIII.

Possession

Tips and notes

Possessive pronouns show which grammatical person 'possesses' the given object. In Polish, like adjectives, they have to match the noun phrase in terms of number, gender and case. They are put before the noun phrase.
Some good news: the 3rd person possessives ("his", "her" and "their") are identical for all numbers, genders and cases, so you have less to worry about. They are as follows:

• his = jego
  
• her/hers = jej
  
• their/theirs = ich
  

For this reason, they are not put in any of the tables below.

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Possessives: Nominative

Possessive	my/mine	your/yours (sg)	our/ours	your/yours (pl)
Masculine	mój	twój	nasz	wasz
Feminine	moja	twoja	nasza	wasza
Neuter	moje	twoje	nasze	wasze
'Masculine personal' plural	moi	twoi	nasi	wasi
'Not masculine-personal' plural	moje	twoje	nasze	wasze

Possessives: Accusative

Like with parts of speech discussed before, Accusative of masculine animate nouns looks like Genitive and masculine inanimate nouns have it identical to Nominative. As before, the neuter singular and 'not masculine-personal' Accusative is also identical to Nominative.

Possessive	my/mine	your/yours (sg)	our/ours	your/yours (pl)
Masculine animate	mojego	twojego	naszego	waszego
Masculine inanimate	mój	twój	nasz	wasz
Feminine	moją	twoją	naszą	waszą
Neuter	moje	twoje	nasze	wasze
'Masculine personal' plural	moich	twoich	naszych	waszych
'Not masculine-personal' plural	moje	twoje	nasze	wasze

Possessives: Instrumental

The feminine ones are the same as in Accusative. Masculine and neuter forms are identical. There is no difference between the plurals.

Possessive	my/mine	your/yours (sg)	our/ours	your/yours (pl)
Masculine	moim	twoim	naszym	waszym
Feminine	moją	twoją	naszą	waszą
Neuter	moim	twoim	naszym	waszym
‘Masculine personal’ plural	moimi	twoimi	naszymi	waszymi
‘Not masculine-personal’ plural	moimi	twoimi	naszymi	waszymi

Possessives: Genitive

Masculine and neuter forms are identical. There is no difference between the plurals.

Possessive	my/mine	your/yours (sg)	our/ours	your/yours (pl)
Masculine	mojego	twojego	naszego	waszego
Feminine	mojej	twojej	naszej	waszej
Neuter	mojego	twojego	naszego	waszego
Masculine personal'	moich	twoich	naszych	waszych
Not masculine-personal	moich	twoich	naszych	waszych

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Vocabulary and Grammar: swój

swój is not taught until "Possess. 2", but it is worth knowing it now. "swój" and its forms (declension analogous to "mój" or "twój") refers back to the subject of the sentence. See examples:

• Ja kocham swojego kota. = I love my cat.
  
• Ty kochasz swojego kota. = You love your cat.
  
• Ona kocha swojego kota. = She loves her cat.
  
• My kochamy swojego kota. = We love our cat.
  

As you can see, the word "swojego" stays unchanged, but it changes its meaning depending on the subject of the sentence.
Wherever using a form of "swój" is correct, it is preferred to the 'normal' possessives.
In 1st person, both the 'normal' one and "swój" sound quite natural.
In 2nd person, the 'normal' possessive doesn't sound very natural if "swój" could be used instead.
In 3rd person, they have different meanings. For example "Adam kocha swojego kota" means "Adam loves his (his own) cat", while "Adam kocha jego kota" means "Adam loves his (Marek's) cat".
Because of the course creators' decision to not teach "swój" here together with other possessives, some sentences are unfortunately a bit unnatural, using 'normal' possessives when "swój" should be used instead.
Remember: as "swój" refers to the subject of the sentence, it is impossible to use it in Nominative!