The Russian language is rich, expressive and universal. At the same time, it is a very complex language. What are some declination or conjugation! What about the variety of syntax? What about, for example, an Englishman who is accustomed to the fact that in his native language sentences have a clear structure? Consider the English phrase, "We go to our Museum today." This sentence can be translated into Russian in different ways:
- "We will go to our museum today."
- "Let's go to our museum today."
- "Let's go to our museum today."
- "Today we will go to our museum."
Depending on the word order, the meaning of the sentence also changes. In the first case, information is provided about the intention to go to the museum (this is the most neutral option). In the second case, the focus is on how exactly people will get to the museum (on foot, and not by transport). In the third, it is specified that the event will happen today. And in the fourth sentence, people report that they will go to a specific museum, "ours," and not any other. And here it is appropriate to talk about such a part of speech as the pronoun. We will find out further why possessive pronouns in Russian are needed.
Pronoun
So what is a pronoun? This is an independent part of speech, which can replace any other - noun, adjective, adverb and even numeral. The pronouns include words that do not specifically name objects, quantities, signs, but only point to them. The following categories of pronouns exist:
- Personal: me, you, you, we. These parts of speech indicate the persons in question.
- Index: that, that, that, that, that.
- Definitive: all, each, another.
- Negative: nobody, nothing.
- Uncertain: a few, some, some.
- Possessive: mine, ours, yours, yours.
- Returnable: yourself.
- Interrogative: who? what? which one? whose?
- Relative. They coincide with interrogative ones, but are used as allied words in subordinate clauses.
As you can see, the pronoun present in the above translation of the English phrase refers to possessive pronouns. Let's talk about them.
What pronouns are called possessive?
Possessive pronouns in the Russian language play an important role. Possessive are those pronouns that indicate the belonging of an object to someone or something. They answer the questions: “Whose?”, “Whose?”, “Whose?”, “Whose?”.
We present to you a list of possessive pronouns present in Russian:
- mine, mine, mine; ours, ours, ours; mine, ours;
- yours, yours, yours; yours, yours, yours; yours, yours;
- his her; them.
Sometimes here the conditionally include the pronoun "own" as a back-possessive.
Change of possessive pronouns
The above list is not accidentally divided into three lines. So you can quickly find out how possessive pronouns in Russian change. Firstly, they are transformed by faces: in the first line are the pronouns of the first person, in the second - the second person, in the third line - the third. In the table that we posted below, you can see that possessive pronouns vary by gender (masculine, feminine, average) and numbers (singular and plural).
How do possessive pronouns in the Russian language change in cases (or are inclined)? The examples presented below will clarify this issue in as much detail as possible:
- Them. p. (who?): My mom and I went to the zoo today.
- Rod p. (whom?): My mother was not at home today.
- Dat p. (to whom?): My mother liked to walk around the zoo.
- Vin. p. (who?): Even a lion didn’t scare my mother at the zoo.
- Tv p. (by whom?): I'm proud of my mom.
- Suggestion p. (about whom?): I will tell everyone in the class about my mom.
There are also such modifications:
- Them. p. (what?): I went to school, and now I have my own textbooks.
- Rod p. (why?): While I went to kindergarten, I did not have my own textbooks.
- Dat p. (what?): Now I am a schoolgirl and am very happy with my textbooks.
- Vin. p. (what?): I often look at my textbooks, even if I can not read everything.
- Tv p. (what?): I am proud of my textbooks: they are neatly wrapped.
- Suggestion p. (what?): I already buzzed all my mom and dad's ears about my textbooks.
Ways of difference
As mentioned above, possessive pronouns in the Russian language answer the following questions: "Whose?", "Whose?", "Whose?". Thanks to such questions, one can easily distinguish between personal pronouns and personal pronouns in the meaning of possessive in the Russian language. This nuance can be remembered by studying such examples:
- I invited her to visit. Called whom? - her. Personal pronoun.
- I accidentally spotted her mom on the street. Whose mom? - her. In this case, there is an explicit indication of belonging. That is, we see a possessive pronoun.
There are particularities in personal pronouns and in the meaning of possessive in declension. This point is presented in the following examples:
- Nominative case (who?): My girlfriend, her sister, and their parents fell under the rain today.
- Genitive (whom?): My girlfriend, her sister and their parents are not at home today.
- Dative (to whom?): My girlfriend and her sister will fly away from their parents today for leaving far without warning.
- Accusative (whom?): My girlfriend and her sister were met by their parents and taken home.
- Creative (by whom?): I admire my girlfriend and her parents because they like to have fun together.
- Prepositional (about whom?): Sometimes I tell my grandmother about my girlfriend and her parents.
In the table below, you can see that personal pronouns in the meaning of possessives remain unchanged, while possessive pronouns tend. So, you already know what possessive pronouns are. In Russian, this is an indispensable part of speech.
Proverbs and sayings
The people came up with many sayings and proverbs in which possessive pronouns are present. The most popular of these are sayings:
- It was yours, it became ours.
- My word is like granite.
- His shirt is closer to the body.
- You see a straw in a stranger’s eye, but you don’t notice a log in your own.
- Say who your friend is, and I will say who you are.