njezin

Njezin is a possessive determiner used in several South Slavic languages, notably Croatian, Bosnian, Montenegrin, and Serbian. It indicates that something belongs to a female third person and agrees with the noun it modifies in gender, number, and case. In standard usage, njezin and its related forms appear before the noun, functioning similarly to the English “her” in possessive phrases.

The forms of njezin adapt to the gender and number of the noun they accompany. Common patterns include a masculine singular form njezin (as in njezin auto), a feminine singular form njezina (as in njezina kuća), and a neuter singular form njezino. Plural forms exist for different noun genders, such as njezini for masculine plural and njezine for feminine plural. The exact ending changes according to the language’s declension rules and the noun’s case. These forms allow speakers to express possession with a gender- and number-accurate article before the noun.

In practice, njezin is used in both formal and informal contexts to attribute ownership to a female referent. Examples include njezin auto (her car), njezina kuća (her house), and njezin brat (her brother). While the core meaning is consistent across the languages, there can be regional or dialectal variations in preference for alternative possessive constructions. Some dialects or speakers may opt for slightly different inflections or less formal equivalents in casual speech.

See also: possessive adjectives in South Slavic languages, pronoun systems, gender agreement in determiners.