"Eu citesc ziarul său."
Translation:I read his newspaper.
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"său" is a reflexive pronoun with no correspondence in English, which usually refers to the subject of the sentence, while "lui" could refer to someone else. In this example, they are perfectly interchangeable, but consider:
El citește ziarul său. - (He is reading his newspaper. The newspaper is his own. Either he owns it or he made it)
El citește ziarul lui. - (He is reading a newspaper, which is either his own, or someone else's who can be referred to as a "he")
Interesting discussion. Can any Romanian native elaborate on this?
It seems like this word is like the Slavic 'svoj': where the possessor is also the subject, as in: I read MY book (subject = possessor, so SVOJ), he reads MY book (my = MOJ), I read his book (no SVOJ here), he reads HIS book (SVOJ, becausee subject = possessor). Does it work like this in Romanian too?
No it doesn't. In Romanian the possesive pronoun is always the same. "I read MY book = Eu citesc cartea MEA", " he reads MY book= el citeşte cartea MEA", " I read HIS book= eu citesc cartea SA= eu citesc cartea LUI" ( "sa" is more polite), " he reads HIS(own) book= el citeşte cartea SA", " he reads HIS( another person's) book = el citeşte cartea LUI". You can also say " el citeşte cartea LUI= he reads HIS( own) book" but as someone else mentioned before...this might create confusion, and most likely will generate the question:" whose book, his own or someone else's?" :)
Sorry but your Romanian friend is wrong..." eu citesc ziarul MEU"= I am reading MY newspaper"