"The elephant is his friend."

Translation: Elefanten är hans vän.

[mha132]

Elefanten är hans kompis?

[peterdab]

i thought that was ok too

[Arnauti]

It's since been added as an accepted answer, but kompis really means more like 'pal' or 'mate'.

[GeorgeFerguson93]

Can't you say 'sin vän'?

[Lundgren8]

No, that only works if you’ve mentioned the person before in the same clause, but now the ”he” in this sentence is completely new information, so you have to use ”hans”.

[GeorgeFerguson93]

So could this work: "Han har en elefant. Elefanten är sin vän" ?

[Lundgren8]

No, it has to be within the same clause as well: ”Han gav sin elefant ett äpple” would work for example.

[TheLivington]

Since 'sin' is referring to the elephant (subject) that would mean that "The elefant is its (own) friend" and also sound about as awkward as in English. If you added 'egen' (own) it would work but of course have nothing to do with the original sentence here "Elefanten är sin egen vän" (The elephant is its own friend) :D

[Nikolas_87]

Elefanten äter hans vän. :D

[DtDzY]

Hang on, I only had vänner to choose from! It was wrong!

[Dennso1]

Why kompis and not vän?

[Arnauti]

vän is the suggested answer. kompis is a more colloquial word that means 'mate' or 'pal'. It's an accepted answer although it's a less good translation, and any accepted answer can get shown to you.

[Marlie983518]

This made me think of "hundraåringen som klev ut genom fönstret och försvann"