Declining This That and Possessives

When describing nouns in Serbian, demonstrative and possessive pronouns behave like adjectives (придевске заменице). They must align with the noun in gender, number, and case.

1. Word Order
In standard noun phrases, demonstratives and possessives precede the noun as well as descriptive adjectives: [Demonstrative] + [Possessive] + [Adjective] + [Noun].
For example: у овом мом новом стану ('in this new apartment of mine').

2. The Adjectival Declension vs. Noun Declension
Learners often make the mistake of copying noun endings onto pronominal adjectives. Notice how the endings differ:

• Locative Masc. Sg.: у овом граду (Modifier takes -om, noun takes -u).
• Instrumental Masc. Sg.: с мојим пријатељем (Modifier takes -im, noun takes -em).
• Genitive Masc. Sg.: из тога разлога (Modifier takes -og/-oga, noun takes -a).

3. Contracted vs. Uncontracted Forms and Movable Vowels
It is essential to distinguish between vowel contraction (сажимање вокала) and movable vowels (покретни самогласници / навезак):

• Contraction applies prominently to singular possessives like мој, твој, and the reflexive possessive pronoun свој, as well as to the pronoun који (and its derivatives) in the masculine and neuter singular Genitive and Dative/Locative. In these forms, stems with intervocalic -ј- alternate with contracted variants:
  - Genitive Masc./Neut. Sg.: uncontracted мојег(а), твојег(а), својег(а), којег(а) vs. contracted мог(а), твог(а), свог(а), ког(а).
  - Dative/Locative Masc./Neut. Sg.: uncontracted мојем(у), твојем(у), својем(у), којем(у) vs. contracted мом(е)/мому, твом(е)/твому, свом(е)/свому, ком(е)/кому.
• Movable vowels are optional terminal vowels added to case endings for rhythm or euphony. Note their distribution: in the singular, movable -а attaches to Genitive and animate Accusative endings (-ог / -ога, -ег / -ега). For the Dative and Locative endings, hard-stem -ом can take either -е or -у (-ом / -оме / -ому), whereas soft-stem forms in -ем can only take -у (-ем / -ему, never *-еме due to vowel dissimilation). In the plural, movable -а regularly attaches to the Dative, Instrumental, and Locative ending -им (yielding -има, such as мојим / мојима, овим / овима). Demonstratives like тај and овај have consonantal stems and do not undergo contraction; their variation consists entirely of movable vowels:
  - Genitive Masc./Neut. Sg.: тог / тога, овог / овога, оног / онога.
  - Dative/Locative Masc./Neut. Sg.: том / томе / тому, овом / овоме / овому, оном / ономе / оному.

The Instrumental singular does not contract (only мојим, твојим, својим). Both contracted and uncontracted variants—as well as forms with or without movable vowels—are fully standard, though shorter forms (мог, том, овом) are the most frequent in everyday speech and writing. Note that plural possessives like наш and ваш do not contract.

4. Reflexive Possessive: свој, своја, своје
In standard Serbian, the reflexive possessive pronoun свој refers back to the subject of the clause across all grammatical persons:

• Ја идем у своју собу. (I am going to my room.)
• Ти читаш своју књигу. (You are reading your book.)
• Марко седи у својој соби. (Marko sits in his own room.)
• Марко седи у његовој соби. (Marko sits in someone else's room.)

Standard normative Serbian strictly prescribes свој whenever possession belongs to the subject, regardless of person. In the third person, using свој is strictly obligatory because substituting његов or њен changes the meaning entirely to designate someone else's property. In informal and everyday colloquial speech, speakers frequently use 1st and 2nd person possessives instead (e.g. Идем у моју собу), but standard grammar requires своју.

5. Discourse Reference: Тај vs. Онај
While English uses 'that' for both distant items and previously mentioned topics, Serbian distinguishes them clearly. Use тај for discourse reference (the thing just mentioned or under discussion). Reserve онај for items physically distant from both speakers or remote in time.