svojí

Svojí is a form of the Czech possessive determiner svůj, meaning “one’s own.” It is used to indicate possession by the subject of the clause and to distinguish that ownership from someone else’s. As with other possessive adjectives in Czech, the form agrees with the noun it modifies rather than with the possessor.

The form svoji (with the accent on the i written as śvojí) appears in feminine singular contexts, most commonly in the genitive and dative cases. For example, in phrases like bez svojí knihy, the noun knihy is feminine singular in the genitive, meaning “without one’s own book.” In contrast, feminine accusative is often written as svou (for example, Má svou ženu – “She has her own wife,” though in practice such a sentence would usually be adapted to natural Czech usage depending on context).

In everyday Czech, svůj is used to denote reflexive possession, contrasting with third-person possessives like jeho (his) and její (her). When the possessor is the subject, svůj forms help prevent ambiguity about who owns the object.

Etymology traces svój to the Proto-Slavic root svъjъ, related to other Slavic reflexive possessives. The system of inflection allows svůj to align with masculine, feminine, neuter, and plural nouns across cases, yielding various forms such as svůj (masculine), svojí (feminine in certain cases), svou (feminine accusative), and své (neuter or plural, depending on noun gender and number).

See also: my equivalents Můj, Vlastní; possessive pronouns in Czech grammar.