"He reads his newspaper."
Translation:El își citește ziarul.
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I'm not buying își as possessive. Arguably it's a native pronoun that in some situations might imply possession, but that's not the same thing. I've sent this precise sentence to a dear Romanian friend who's good with the languages and I'm waiting for her to get back to me. I personally think it's just one of the many situations where proper Romanian seems redundant to outsiders. I also think it implies that he's reading it silently and not out loud to someone else.
What did the Romanian friend say?
Îşi has the meaning of he/she doing something for themselves.
Ea îşi bea cafeaua - she drinks her cafeaua. Îşi implies the coffee is hers.
El îşi mănâncă supa - he eats his soup.
Once you remove the îşi the sentences translate as follows
Ea bea cafeaua - she drinks the coffee
El mănâncă supa - he eats the soup
At least that's how I remember it. Been living abroad for a decade now