"Vidíš svůj dům?"

[LoossSS]

If I wanted to translate "do you see my house?" (Like my own house) could this be translated the same way "vidíš svůj dům?" ?
When using svůj as "one's own" how do you know who we are speaking about as it's the same word for everyone ? (Who is owning the thing)

[endless_sleeper]

No, it could not. 'Svůj' always refers to the subject of the sentence. Therefore:

'Do you see your house?' = 'Vidíš svůj dům?'

'Do you see my house?' = 'Vidíš můj dům?'

'Do I see your house?' = 'Vidím tvůj dům?'

'Do I see my house?' = 'Vidím svůj dům?'

It gets slightly complicated in 3rd person (at least on the English side):

'Does he see his (own) house?' = 'Vidí svůj dům?'

'Does he see his (someone else's) house?' = 'Vidí jeho dům?'

[LoossSS]

Thanks a lot. That clarifies it perfectly

[Jay757881]

Wouldn't "Vidíš tvůj dům" be "Do you see your house?"

[endless_sleeper]

Using tvůj is not correct. You have to use svůj - svůj is used to indicate possession by the subject of the clause. Check T&N for possessives.

[2200Lucia60]

This sentence here is intended to be a question. In the listening exercise, I did not understand it was a question. Now, I think that , if it was not a question, the verb should be at the end, being "Svůj dům vidíš". Could you confirm that, endless_sleeper? THX :-)

[kacenka9]

No, it does not. The above order is the most common there is. The one you have is slightly unusual and I would only use it in a situation where I am showing somebody something and they are having hard time locating it. So i ask "Svuj dum vidis' as a kind of a confirmation that he/she indeed sees their house and I am now going to use their house as i point in space and tell them to look left or right or up to whatever of it. I am upfront assuming that they do see their house. If I only wanted to know if they see their house without assumption, the above sentence would be ideal. You can tell it is a question from the intonation.