Possessive Pronouns — Lithuanian Grammar

Possessive pronouns say whose something is: my, your, his, her, our, their. In Lithuanian most of them are simply the genitive ("of me", "of you") of the personal pronouns, and they have one very convenient property: they do not change for the gender, number or case of the thing owned.

The Set

(my), (your, one person), (his), (her)
(our), (your, plural/polite), (their)

mano namas
my house.
jūsų vaikai
your children.
jo brolis
his brother.

They Never Change Their Ending

This is the easy part, and a real relief after the declining nouns and adjectives. Whatever happens to the noun, the possessive stays exactly the same - compare across three forms:

Tai mano knyga.
That is my book. (nominative)
Jis skaito mano knygą.
He is reading my book. (accusative)
Tai mano knygos.
These are my books. (plural)

is identical in all three; only the noun changes.

"savo" - One's Own

There is a special possessive, , used when the owner is the subject of the same sentence, for any person. It means "my/your/his/her/their own", depending on who the subject is, and it too never changes its ending:

Myliu savo šeimą.
I love my (own) family.
Jis myli savo šeimą.
He loves his (own) family.
Jie parduoda savo namą.
They are selling their (own) house.

Where They Sit

Like English, the possessive comes before the noun, and before any adjective describing it:

mano naujas namas
my new house.
jūsų geras draugas
your good friend.

To ask "whose?", use :

Kieno tai knyga?
Whose book is this?

They Come From the Pronouns

It helps to see that these possessives are just the genitive ("of …") of the personal pronouns, frozen into a fixed word. is "of me", "of you", "of him". That is why they do not decline - a genitive does not itself take further endings:

tavo vardas
your name. (literally "of-you name")
jų namai
their house.

Why "savo" Matters

Choosing over / removes an ambiguity that English allows. Compare:

Jis myli savo žmoną.
He loves his own wife.
Jis myli jo žmoną.
He loves his (another man's) wife.

The rule of thumb: when the thing belongs to the subject of the sentence, reach for ; use only when the owner is someone else.

In the course

Sentences from Lingora’s Lithuanian course

95 of the course's 500 sentences use this, the first in lesson 2. A few of them, with the words “Possessive Pronouns” is about in bold:

Tai mano draugė Ana. Ji yra studentė.
This is my friend, Anna. She is a student.
Lesson 2
Tėvas nupirko dovaną mano mamai.
My father bought a present for my mother.
Lesson 225
Kur mūsų dukra? - Ji yra mokykloje.
Where is our daughter? - She's at school.
Lesson 242

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