Possessivpronomen

Possessive pronouns

English has one word for "my", whatever follows it: my car, my house, my books. Norwegian possessives agree with the noun they belong to, so min ("my") has a different shape for each gender and for the plural:

Owner	en-word (masc.)	ei-word (fem.)	et-word (neuter)	Plural
my	min	mi	mitt	mine
your (one person)	din	di	ditt	dine
his	hans
her	hennes
our	vår	vår	vårt	våre
your (several) / their	deres

Only min, din, sin and vår change. Hans, hennes and deres stay the same whatever the noun. The feminine forms mi and di belong with ei-words; many speakers in Oslo use the masculine forms instead (boka mi or boken min), and both are correct Bokmål.

The possessive usually comes after the noun

The everyday word order is the reverse of English: the noun comes first, in its definite form, and the possessive follows it. Norwegians call this double marking, because "the" and "my" are both there.

Norwegian	Word for word	English
bilen min	car-the my	my car
huset mitt	house-the my	my house
vennene våre	friends-the our	our friends
hytta deres	cabin-the their	their cabin

Putting the possessive first, as in English (min bil, mitt hus), is also correct, but it sounds emphatic or formal: "MY car, not yours". If you say min bil in a neutral sentence, a Norwegian hears a stress you did not mean. Note that the noun is then indefinite: min bil, not min bilen.

sin, si, sitt, sine: "his own", "her own"

English "his" is ambiguous: in "Ola washes his car", is it Ola's car or another man's? Norwegian keeps the two apart. When the owner is the subject of the same clause, you use the reflexive possessive sin / si / sitt / sine:

Norwegian	Meaning
Ola vasker bilen sin.	Ola washes his (own) car.
Ola vasker bilen hans.	Ola washes his car (another man's, say Per's).
Kari ringer moren sin.	Kari calls her (own) mother.

This is the mistake English speakers make most: they reach for hans or hennes everywhere. Ask yourself "does it belong to the subject?" If yes, it is sin. Two limits: in standard Bokmål sin does not stand inside the subject itself (Bilen hans er ny, not *Bilen sin er ny), and it is used for he, she, it and they, not for I, you or we (Jeg vasker bilen min).