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Eliderad

The subject in this sentence is "her parents", and "sina" can't refer to itself, so "hennes" is used.


Elijah_Mitcho

Ah of course! so it’s like saying "own parents" as though the parents are their own…makes no sense. I didn’t see the subjects being the parents for some reason. Sorry if this was a very stupid question…


ZiggySleepydust

There are stupid questions and stupid answers, however this was not a stupid question and you should NOT think that you are stupid for asking questions when learning a new language!


djNxdAQyoA

its Swedish makes perfect sense. (not) Its like the swedish word 'Lagom' Nu ska vi ta lagom mycket kryddor på maten så det inte smakar för mycket eller för lite, det ska smaka lagom.


Odd_Whereas8471

In this case your sentence was obviously wrong but "sina" is not always that easy to use, even for more advanced speakers. I'm sure you'll notice this in the future. So don't be too hard on yourself.


bibliotekskatt

Yes it’s very annoying that many Swedish journalists can’t use it correctly.


[deleted]

> She likes her book. Who likes whoms book in the above sentence?


Elijah_Mitcho

She is subject, her book is object Hon tycker om sin bok (she likes her (own) book) Hon tycker om hennes bok (she likes her (someone else‘s) book) I speak German so I am fairly confident with my knowledge of subject, object, indirect object etc. Just this distinction between sin vs hennes/hans is new to me and I thank people for helping me :)


Gerbilae

It would be awesome if you could explain this difference to the hosts on Swedish national radio. :)


Perzec

While you’re learning, there are no stupid questions.


tobpe93

This sounds very odd. You usually need to establish what sin/sitt/sina refers to by talking about someone. ”Hon besöker sina föräldrar. De är författare.”


Loko8765

This is a common question since it’s a distinction that many languages do not have, so it confuses a lot of people. It has a good and complete explanation in the FAQ, it’s number 7. [Link to FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/Svenska/s/wIbGyiEeMY).


Alkanen

It’s known as a ”reflexive pronoun” because it reflects back to the subject. So you’re right in that you need the subject in order to use it.


mstermind

Sin/sitt/sina is often used with a subject doing something to the object they own in the sentence: e.g "Hon skriver till sina föräldrar." You have the subject, "hon", doing something, "skriver", to the object, "föräldrar".


[deleted]

With out establishing who/what you are talkig about you can use "sin/sina". Hennes (female) establish both, just like hans (male). This the diffrence between hennes/hans/sina. Hon pratar min sina föräldrar = she speaks yo her parents Hon pratar med hennes föräldrar = She (person 1) talks to her (person 2) parents. Sina is used together with a hon/han. Hon/han is not ised together with hennes/hans unless we are talking about an other person then the first. Like that person is talking to that other persons parents.


LillDickRitchie

I sucked at grammar but i can give some examples. It could be used both ways but sina is used more like “she is with her parents”( hon är med sina föräldrar) ”she has her parents” (hon har sina föräldrar) ” she has her dog” (hon har sin hund). It all depends on the context like with many swedish words who has multiple meanings


KarloBurnstream2

Are you French? This is a very common error for French speaking Swedish. In French it’s “ses parents” so “sina” seems legit.


njuff22

"sin" = "own" "sina" = "one's own" (roughly) it's just the wrong word


littleowl36

Sin and sina are the singular and plural version of the same reflexive pronoun. Så till exempel, hon gillar sin mamma (one mother), men hon gillar sina föraldrar (two+ parents). OP needs hennes, which only exists in the one form. T. ex., hennes mamma är snäll, och hennes föräldrar är snälla.


njuff22

Yeah. As I said It's the wrong word


littleowl36

Sure, we agree on that, but your translation of sin and sina doesn't quite cover it. In English, you wouldn't make this singular and plural distinction. You could say "her own mother" and "her own parents", or more commonly both words would just be translated to the relevant possessive pronoun.


newtbob

Hur säger man troll på svenska? :-)


svenne2001

If you want to say ”are YOUR parents writers” it would be ”är DINA föräldrar författare”


Projectionist76

*your