Possessives and свій

After this page you will know every possessive word in Ukrainian, how each one changes, and which ones do not change at all. You will be able to say their correctly with ї́хній, and you will know when to use свій (one’s own): the word that keeps He took his coat from meaning someone else’s coat.

Pronouns introduced the possessives in the nominative, and Adjectives in all cases gave the full tables for мій and наш. This page brings all of them together and adds свій.

The possessives at a glance

So there are two kinds:

• Possessives that agree with the noun, like adjectives: мій, твій, наш, ваш, ї́хній and свій. They change for gender, number and case.
• Possessives that never change: його́ and її́. They are the genitive forms of він and вона́, and depend only on the owner.

The agreeing possessives in all cases

The spelling standard groups them by pattern [src: pravopys-2026, §110]:

• мій, твій and свій share one set of endings. The full table of мій is on Adjectives in all cases;
• наш and ваш change like hard adjectives such as нови́й. The full table of наш is on the same page;
• ї́хній changes like soft adjectives such as си́ній. Its table is below.

This table shows a few key forms side by side, so you can see the patterns.

In the masculine and neuter locative, the forms in -ому/-єму (у моє́му, у на́шому) and the shorter forms (у мої́м, у на́шім) are both correct. A usage guide notes that the longer forms are more common, and the only ones used in scientific and official writing [src: goroh-usage].

його and її: his and her

Його́ (his, its) and її́ (her) never change, whatever the noun after them: його́ брат, його́ сестра́, з його́ сестро́ю, для її́ діте́й.

Two details:

• No н-. After a preposition the personal pronouns take н- (до ньо́го, to him), but the possessives do not: до його́ бра́та (to his brother). Personal pronouns in all cases explains this.
• No stress shift. When the preposition belongs to the noun, not to the possessive, the stress of його́ and її́ stays where it is: до його́ ха́ти, до її́ до́му [src: pravopys-2026, §113, note 2].

Their: їхній, not їх

Їх is the genitive and accusative of вони́: them. Usage guides recommend ї́хній for their, and some call їх in this meaning an error [src: goroh-usage]. A simple test from one guide: if you can ask чий? (whose?) about the phrase, use ї́хній in the right form [src: goroh-usage].

Ваш with a capital letter

In letters, emails and official documents, Ви and Ваш are written with a capital letter when addressed politely to one person [src: pravopys-2026, §60].

свій: one’s own

Свій means one’s own: something that belongs to the person the sentence is about [src: goroh-dictionary]. In practice this is the subject of the verb, the person who does the action. It changes exactly like мій [src: pravopys-2026, §110]: свій, своя́, своє́, свої́; свого́, своє́ї, свої́м, своє́ю and so on.

Свій works like the reflexive pronoun себе́ on Personal pronouns in all cases: it points back to the subject, whoever that is. So one word covers my own, your own, his own, her own, our own and their own.

With he, she and they: свій changes the meaning

With a subject in the third person (він, вона́, воно́, вони́, or a noun), the choice matters. Свій means the subject’s own thing. Його́, її́ and ї́хній point to someone else who has already been mentioned.

English his and her are ambiguous here. Ukrainian is not, so think about whose thing it is before you choose.

With I, you and we: both are found

With я, ти, ми and ви, there is no ambiguity: мій and свій both point to the speaker. Both are used, and the dictionary has literary examples of свій with я, such as Свій літерату́рний смак я ви́робив… (I developed my literary taste…, Kotsiubynsky) [src: goroh-dictionary].

When the owner is not the subject

Sometimes the owner is in another case, for example in the phrase у ко́жного (each person has). Свій can still refer to that person, as in the saying recommended by one usage guide: У ко́жного свій смак. (Everyone has their own taste.) [src: goroh-usage].

Do not overuse свій

Свій is not needed when it is already obvious whose thing it is. A usage guide gives Я веду́ свій щоде́нник уже́ кі́лька років as an example where свій can simply be left out: Я веду́ щоде́нник уже́ кі́лька років (I’ve been keeping a diary for several years) [src: goroh-usage].

Usage guides also recommend some set phrases [src: goroh-usage]:

• свого́ ча́су (at one time, back then), rather than у свій час;
• на мою́ ду́мку (in my opinion), rather than за моє́ю ду́мкою.

Common mistakes and limits