"Jeho žena chce svůj hrad."
Translation:His wife wants her castle.
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And what would it be for "His wife wants my castle"? In a previous example "svůj" was used for "my". Since there are no lessons, just the exercises, I would be grateful if someone could explain it to me please :).
Svůj is used when whatever is "owned" belongs to the subject of the sentence. So "His wife wants my castle" would be "Jeho žena chce můj hrad." (As a native AmE speaker, I can attest to this being a confusing concept!)
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Just to sum up (as all these is quite complicated for me and for learners) ; and please if possible, check my findings : 1.HIS wife (f) wants her castle. > Jeho žena chce SVŮJ hrad.. 2.HIS wife (f) wants his castle. > Jeho žena (f) chce JEHO hrad.. 3.HIS wife (f) wants my castle. > Jeho žena chce MŮJ hrad.. 4.HER husband (m) wants his castle. > Její muž chce SVŮJ hrad. 5. Her husband (m) chce her castle. JEJÍ muž chce JEJÍ hrad. I wonder what grade I would deserve here..
I am thinking that you deserve an A! And I also think your comment can be very helpful to others.
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Thank you BHBass! I stopped for one month with Czech but I am back. Due to the helpful people here I am ready to break through all the Czech language's complications. Without hurry, that's the best. See you around!
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I checked with the hints and used one of the three suggestions although I thought it was wrong. So? Svůj = her?
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What would be Czech for "His wife wants his castle". It would get "jeho" right? (Jeho žena chce jeho hrad.) ?
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Please do include 'her' as a possibility when presenting 'svůj' for the first time. Thanks.
I have added (re-added?) "her" to the hints for "svůj". It's still not certain whether the Duolingo algorithm decides to show that at the top of the possible meanings.
I really pleased that the english translation is now allowing "her own castle" because as a native english speaker I think it is necessary for the correct meaning in english - to me "his wife wants her castle" by its omission of "own" would mean to most english speakers that his wife wants the castle of some other woman. Do others agrees?
I (native AmE) agree that "her castle" in the English sentence could refer to a castle that belongs to another woman.
But in this exercise, svůj in the Czech sentence makes it clear that the castle belongs to the subject of the sentence, which is "jeho žena/his wife." And, as VladaFu said, the castle might have been taken from "his wife," and now she wants it back. I mean, who wouldn't, right? :-)
She might want the castle that had been taken from her. Mightn't she? (not a native speaker)
But I do agree that if it requires such an interpretation, the "her own" should be accepted as well. And it always was.