Honom

Honom is the object form of the third-person singular masculine pronoun in Swedish. It is used to refer to a male or masculine referent that is the recipient or target of an action, or after prepositions. For example: Jag såg honom (I saw him).

In standard Swedish, the subject form is han, while the possessive determiner for a male is hans (his). Honom completes the set of traditional, gendered personal pronouns in the language, operating in the oblique cases where the action or relation involves the object of the verb.

Etymology and forms. Honom originates from the old Scandinavian pronoun system, where different cases distinguished nominative and oblique forms. Over time, han became the common masculine subject, and honom developed as the corresponding masculine object form, used after verbs and prepositions to indicate the object of the action.

Contemporary usage. Honom remains widely used in modern Swedish for masculine referents in formal and informal contexts. In addition to honom, the language has developed a gender-neutral pronoun hen, which is used to refer to a person without specifying gender and can replace han or hon in many contexts. Hen is increasingly accepted in writing and speech, but honom continues to be the standard object form for masculine references in most traditional grammars and publications. Understanding both honom and hen is useful for readers and learners navigating modern Swedish pronoun usage.