Study guide: Swedish Pronouns: Man and Indefinites

📋 Course Outline

1. Reflexive Possessive Pronouns
2. Forms of Man
3. Choosing Man or En
4. Inte Någon and Ingen
5. Exam Practice and Scope

📖 1. Reflexive Possessive Pronouns

★ Must-know

📌 Use a possessive reflexive pronoun (sin, sitt or sina) when the pronoun is an object referring back to the subject; use a possessive pronoun such as hans, hennes or deras when it is the subject.

Further detail

• In “Han älskar sin fru,” sin refers back to han, whereas “Han älskar hans fru” refers to another male person’s wife.

• In “Kristina lyfte själv kronan av sitt huvud,” sitt refers back to Kristina.

💡 Memory Hook

Subject-owned possession uses sin; possession belonging to someone else uses hans, hennes or deras.

📖 2. Forms of Man

★ Must-know

📌 For the generalizing human subject man, the object form is en, the possessive form is ens, the reflexive possessive forms are sin, sitt and sina, and the reflexive pronoun is sig.

Further detail

• In “Man lär sig så länge man lever,” man is the subject and sig is the reflexive object.

• In “Man blir glad när goda vänner kommer hem till en,” en is the object form of man.

• In “Om man bjuder på middag är det roligt om ens vänner tycker maten är god,” ens is the possessive form of man.

• In “Man vill gärna ha sina föräldrar nära sig,” sina is the reflexive possessive form and sig is the reflexive pronoun.

📖 3. Choosing Man or En

★ Must-know

📌 Use man for an unspecified human subject in a generalization, and avoid man when the intended person is not general because stating who is meant makes the sentence clearer.

📌 Språkrådet recommends man as more neutral than en as a subject; depending on the reader’s ideology and dialect background, en may be perceived positively as inclusive, gender-neutral and feminist-aware, or negatively as overly colloquial, dialectal and affected. - Språkrådet rekommenderar, 2023

Further detail

📌 When it is difficult to identify the correct form of man, replace it with another pronoun such as han and check the corresponding forms han, honom, hans and sin/sitt/sina.

💡 Memory Hook

Man is more neutral; en can sound inclusive or instead colloquial, dialectal and affected.

📖 4. Inte Någon and Ingen

★ Must-know

📌 In a main clause with two or more verbs, use inte plus någon, något, några or någonting as the object instead of ingen, inget, inga or ingenting.

📌 In a subordinate clause, use inte plus någon, något, några or någonting as the object, even when the clause contains only one verb.

Further detail

• “Jag har ingen hund” has one verb, while “Jag har inte haft någon hund i hela mitt liv” has two verbs and uses inte någon.

• “Eftersom jag inte har någon bil, cyklar jag alltid” uses inte någon in the subordinate clause eftersom jag inte har någon bil.

💡 Memory Hook

Huvudsats with one verb allows ingen; with multiple verbs, and in bisats, use inte någon.

📖 5. Exam Practice and Scope

📝 Essential Points

• The exam tests possessive and reflexive possessive pronouns and the different forms of man.