„SWÓJ" ISN'T AS SCARY AS IT MAY SEEM
Of course, it’s the pronoun „swój“ that we have in mind, a pronoun which is very frequently used in Polish and which doesn’t care how many problems it causes for foreigners. However, it turns out that not all foreigners find it difficult to use this particular pronoun. For the Slavs the use of it comes as naturally as breathing and without much explanation. Unfortunately, the students who use non-Slavic languages in everyday life have a real difficulty using the pronoun. Therefore we introduce it quite late in our lessons, when we are sure that the students learning Polish have already mastered the use of other pronouns, especially „się“, and they don’t have problems with their declension. Obviously, the students are certain to encounter the scary sounding „swój“ during the very first conversation in Polish and will immediately ask what that is.
We cannot ignore the question, but we’d better not go into details at the beginning of the language course.
PRONOUN "SWÓJ" TAKES PRIORITY IN THE POLISH LANGUAGE
But whatever we say, „swój“ is not so black as it is painted. When we take a closer look, we’ll see that „swój“ can replace any possessive pronoun (mój, twój – my, your etc.), but only when the object owned belongs to the subject mentioned in the sentence. It’s possible (or even advisable) to change:
„Lubię moją pracę“ for „Lubię swoją pracę.“
„Siądźcie na waszych miejscach“ for „Siądźcie na swoich miejscach“
Most native speakers will choose the second option but no one will consider the first one to be incorrect. It can be said that the pronoun „swój“ takes priority in the Polish language.
In a lesson it is a good idea to give examples including all the possessive pronouns. The students will soon notice that there’s usually no problem when changing pronouns „mój“ and „twój“ for „swój“, so they’ll automatically try to do the same with „jego“ and „jej“, but there’s a catch. The problem we encounter is the ambiguity of the sentence: „Adam spotkał się z jego żoną“(Adam got together with his wife). Whose wife did Adam get together with? His own wife (spotkał się ze swoją żoną), or another man’s wife (z jego żoną)? Knowing the pronoun „swój“ we’d better use it to be on the safe side so that it’s safer for Adam, his wife and the grammatical correctness of the sentence: „Adam spotkał się ze swoją żoną.“ Having said that, we’re definitely making it clear that the woman Adam got together with was his own wife :)
It’s also easy to notice the difference between the sentences: „Widziałem swojego kolegę“ (I’ve seen MY friend), and „Widziałem twojego kolegę.“ (I’ve seen YOUR friend).
It is important to draw students‘ attention to this issue and point out that the pronouns cannot be interchanged automatically. It is vital to make sure first whether the object really belongs to the subject.
However, that’s not all the trouble yet. As soon as our students get familiar with „swój“ we’ll definitely hear them say things like: „To jest swój pies.“ And that’s where we have to explain the meaning of the sentence, pointing out how absurd it sounds. That will cause some laughter, which is a precious addition to Polish grammar lessons, but will definitely help the students remember that in this particular case it is impossible to use„swój“ since it cannnot be used in the nominative case.
