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[upthera44.livejournal.com]

 I'm sure this subject has been poured over many times in this community, but I will risk asking it again. Could you explain when свой and мой should be used? In English we don't have свой and so it is difficult for me to get a feel of when to use it. For instance, Я убераю свою комнату I would have guessed and written Я убераю мою комнату. 

Or if you prefer not to write out the explanation could someone post a link to a good explanation? Thanks.

Comments

[kunaifusu.livejournal.com]

It's pretty easy, свой can apply to any person, мой is only first person. If you are asking about 1st person they are interchangeable with very slight tone differences. Свой would be preferred if you are making that something belongs to you and not to others, say: "Я убираю свою комнату, а ты убирай свою" yet свой would be okay here as well.

[kunaifusu.livejournal.com]

making a point even

[colonelrabin.livejournal.com]

Here's empirical explanation, not universal one, but can help often. Use only reflexive "свой" if the appropriate personal pronoun is used (especially as a subject) in the same phrase. E.g. not "я убираю мою комнату", "он несет его портфель" but "я убираю свою комнату", "он несет свой протфель". But: "я взял у него его портфель". Here "он" ("него") does not act as subject and the reflexive pronoun "свой", if used, would be understood as if it will concerm "me": "I took my bag from him".

[kunaifusu.livejournal.com]

Also you would use only мой if it's not clear if this is a first person sentence, say "Мой дом неподалеку", свой here would confuse listener because there is no object for свой and it's impossible to figure whose house it is. On the other hand there are common expressions using свой, e.g. "со своей стороны" most people would say with свой even in first person.

[pjatochkin.livejournal.com]

also "свой" is sometimes used to accent that you have a certain kind of property.
like "у меня свой дом" or "у меня свой бизнес" means that you have your own house\business.

actually that is why, "свой дом неподалеку" would sound confusing, like you're are showing off ;)

[max-first.livejournal.com]

First, you can talk without using свой at all.

"Я сел в свою машину, а он - в свою" = "Я сел в мою машину, а он - в его".

Shortly speaking, you can use свой instead of мой\твой\его etc, when it is clear, to which person it applies to.

Я убираю свою комнату

- Что ты делаешь?
- Убираю свою комнату.

Он и я сели в свою машину. - wrong, cause it is not clear does свою means мою or его.

[max-first.livejournal.com]

Opps, it seems like last sentence is still possible... Here, свою can mean нашу(our). But it is not good sentence, just because свой can have several meaning, and natives do not speak like that.

[night-in-light.livejournal.com]

But
Он и я сели в свои машины (Он и я расселись по своим машинам)
still correct, and used.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

1. Убираю, not убераю.
2. Note that, unlike in English, using мой/свой/твой/его/её etc. is not widely spread - you DO NOT use it every time an English speaker would use it, only when you REALLY need to mark a distinction between, in this case, just any room and your room, or your room and somebody else's. In the example you use, a Russian would most likely say,
Я убираю комнату.
That's it. The fact that it's his/her room does not need to be singled out, unless there's a choice of multiple options:
- Ты сейчас чью комнату убираешь, дедушкину или свою?
- Сейчас мою, а потом буду дедушкину.

[ex-tritopor.livejournal.com]

> а он - в его".

This sentence explains a presense of some third person. You can say only "а он - в свою".

[archaicos.livejournal.com]

There's also a longer or full construct with свой:
свой собственный
which exactly emphasizes the possession/ownership of some personal property.

[archaicos.livejournal.com]

So, it seems like you should use свой when the owner is clearly identified in the sentence and there can't be confusion about the owner or the thing that's owned. In that same case you can drop свой/мой altogether.
If there's a chance of confusion, you put the appropriate possessive adjective and not свой.
Свой can be plural: свои.
Свой can be used in impersonal statements like these:
хорошо иметь свой (собственный) дом
своя рубашка ближе к телу
со своим уставом не лезь в чужой монастырь
where свой does not refer to any particular person/possessor, but to anyone. In English you'd probably have just one way of saying this: "it's good to have your own home", where you and your own don't necessarily refer to you. We also use ты and твой this same way at times: хорошо иметь (твой) собственный дом -- here собственный is usually necessary (if there's no other context) but твой isn't. хорошо иметь твой дом might be pretty vague if taken out of context because we usually don't own others' homes.

[merry1978.livejournal.com]

Phrases like "Я сел в мою машину, а он - в его" are grammatically possible, but not stylistically correct!

Normally you just use свой when the object belongs to the subject (of the sentence).

Я убираю свою комнату.
Я сел в свою машину.
Он несет свой портфель.

Мой/его is usually stylistically incorrect in such phrases. Using свой is normal and neutral. By the way, it is the most common mistake of our translators from European languages into Russian.

If you want to emphasise the fact of posession though, it's necessary to use мой/его/ее.

Это моя комната! (This room is mine!)
Это его книга! (This book is his!)

If there is more than one person named in the sentence, the difference between свой and его/её can be significant.

Джон отдал Питеру свой бутерброд. = John gave his sandwich to Peter.
Джон отдал Питеру его бутерброд. = John returned Peter his (Peter's) sandwich.

Его (and the feminine form её) usually means something like "belonging to the last named person".

Theoretically the second phrase can be interpreted as the synonym of the first one, but normally it would be understood just like described above.

[max-first.livejournal.com]

Нет

[racoonbear.livejournal.com]

I would say "... Сейчас свою, а потом буду дедушкину"
"... cейчас мою" sounds not very well.

[the_motion.livejournal.com]

native would say "в свою"
but "в его" does not add a third person if the context is about two.

[colonelrabin.livejournal.com]

"Я сел в мою машину, а он - в его"

I bag your pardon, but this is an extremely bad Russian. Not suitable for a native speaker.

[max-first.livejournal.com]

bEg.

Of course, it is not the best style. But the sentence is grammatically correct.

[malim-praedari.livejournal.com]

+1

[colonelrabin.livejournal.com]

Beg, beg. Beg again.

[oryx_and_crake]

"Я сел в мою машину, а он - в его".
This is not correct Russian.

[alex-mashin.livejournal.com]

Bad style, but right grammar.

[oryx_and_crake]

No, it is not right grammar.