Svojem

Svojem is a form of the Slovenian possessive determiner and reflexive pronoun svoj, used to indicate ownership by the subject of the sentence. It is part of Slovenian’s reflexive possessive system, which distinguishes what belongs to the subject from what belongs to others and from non-reflexive possessives. Svoj agrees like an adjective with the noun it modifies and changes form according to gender, number, and case.

In practice, svojem appears in contexts where the possessor is the subject of the clause and the noun it modifies is in a case that requires a corresponding form. It is commonly found after prepositions such as v (in) or na (on/at) and with masculine or neuter singular nouns in the locative or related cases. Examples include phrases like v svojem domu (in one’s own home) and na svojem mestu (in one’s own place).

Declension and usage notes: as an attributive possessive, svoj is declined to match the noun it modifies. The form svojem is one of the inflected forms used with masculine or neuter singular nouns in certain cases, particularly in combination with prepositions that govern the locative-like forms. Because Slovene allows variation in case forms depending on syntactic context, svojem serves to clearly attribute ownership to the subject while maintaining natural phrasing.

Etymology and relations: the word is cognate with similar reflexive possessives in other Slavic languages (for example, Russian svoj, Polish swój), all tracing back to an archaic root meaning “one’s own.” In Slovene, this system helps avoid ambiguity when multiple potential owners exist in a sentence.

In summary, svojem is a key form of the Slovenian svoj that marks ownership by the subject, typically appearing in contexts with prepositions and in masculine or neuter singular subjects.