Lesson 5 - Possessive pronouns
Possessive pronouns are the words that we use to indicate to whom
something belongs. In English possessive pronouns are for instance my
and his. Since ownership of something can be regarded as a property of
the thing that is owned (just like its colour, size, etc.), a possessive
pronoun can be considered a sort of adjective, so it should be no surprise
that in Esperanto they end in -a. The possessive pronouns are in fact
derived from personal pronouns by attaching the adjectival ending to them:
Vocabulary
| Esperanto | English |
|---|
| mia | my |
| cia* | your |
| lia | his |
| shia | her |
| ghia | its |
| nia | our |
| via | your |
| ilia | their |
| onia | one's, your, their |
*
Just like ci this possessive pronoun is rarely used. Generally
via is used instead.
Besides the set of possessive pronouns that is used attributively (e.g.
"my cat", "her car") there is a second set in English that is
used predicatively (e.g. "The cat is mine", "The car is hers").
In Esperanto the same set serves both purposes:
Ghi estas mia kato = It is my cat.
La kato estas (la)* mia = The cat is mine.
*
The article la which is often used in these cases (analogous to French
"Le chat est le mien" and German "Die Katze is die meinige") is
not mandatory.
In Esperanto there is another possessive pronoun, which must be used
if it refers to the subject of a sentence. There is no equivalent in English
of this personal pronoun, but there are in some other languages (e.g. Latin
and the Scandinavian languages). This possessive pronoun is sia (which
is derived from the reflexive pronoun si, to be treated in a later
lesson). sia must be used instead of lia, shia,
ghia, ilia or onia when the possessor is the subject of
the sentence. Observing this rule is very important, because the meaning of
a sentence depends upon it:
Shi iris al sia hejmo = She went to her home (i.e. her
own home).
Shi iris al shia hejmo = She went to her home (i.e. the home
of another female person).
Ili sidas en sia ghardeno = They are sitting in their garden
(i.e. their own garden).
Ili sidis en ilia ghardeno = They are sitting in their garden
(i.e. in a garden owned by other persons).
If you want to stress the fact that something belongs to the subject of the
sentence you can use propra together with sia:
Ili sidis en sia propra ghardeno = They are sitting in their own
garden.
However, this propra is merely used for emphasis.
Vocabulary
| Esperanto | English |
|---|
| al | to, towards |
| chambro | room |
| flava | yellow |
| hejmo | a home |
| iri | to go |
| infano | child, infant |
| ludi | to play (cf. ludicrous |
| propra | own (cf. property) |
| sed | but |
| segho | chair |
| sub | under (cf. subconscious |
Exercise 5-1
Translate into English:
1. La flava auto estas (la) mia sed la nigra* estas (la) lia. 2.
Shiaj infanoj ludas en sia chambro. 3. La nigra kaj la blanka kato estas (la)
liaj. 4. Liaj propraj infanoj laboras en la ghardeno. 5. Ghia koloro estis
verdo. 6. Nia nova automobilo estos nigra au flava. 7. Shi iris al shia
chambro. 8. La grandaj terpomoj kreskis en nia ghardeno. 9. Ilia kato ludis
sub la tablo. 10. Ili volas marshi al ilia hejmo.
*
Here la nigra is short for la nigra auto. It is not necessary
to substitute a place-holder like the English one (the black one) for
a noun that is left out.
Exercise 5-2
Translate into Esperanto:
1. I want to sit in my own chair. 2. We shall go to our children in the
garden. 3. They are playing under your apple-trees. 4. The apples on the table
are his. 5. There is our home. 6. The new house is ours. 7. Many new houses
are theirs. 8. There were green apples and yellow ones. 9. The men were
working in their houses (their own houses). 10. He went to his new
house (not his own house).
Key to the exercises