Whose book? Your own.
Use xwe to refer back to the subject.
By the end of this lessonDistinguish a subject’s own possessions from someone else’s.
The idea
Xwe refers back to the subject of its own clause. It does not change for person, gender or number. In a possessive phrase, use xwe when the owner is also the subject: Tu kitêba xwe dixwînî. The ezafe link still belongs to the possessed noun.
See it in a sentence
A phrase such as kitêba min is correct on its own. In “I read my own book”, the owner and subject coincide, so use kitêba xwe. In a simple past transitive clause, xwe refers back to the agent, even when that agent is oblique.
Build it step by step
- Ask who owns the thing. Then ask who performs the action in the same clause. If these are the same person or group, use xwe.
- Keep xwe unchanged when the subject changes. Only the verb agreement changes; the ezafe still follows the noun’s gender and number.
- If the owner is someone else, choose min, te, wî, wê, me, we or wan as appropriate. In a past transitive clause, follow the oblique agent to interpret xwe.
| Subject / agent | Own book | Verb |
|---|---|---|
| ez | kitêba xwe | dixwînim |
| tu | kitêba xwe | dixwînî |
| em | kitêba xwe | dixwînin |
| wê (past) | kitêba xwe | xwend |
Take a sentence apart
subject and owner
your own book
you read
“Your own” changes with person in English. Xwe does not: it can refer to my own, your own or our own, depending on the clause’s subject.
A common trap
Incorrect: Ez kitêba min dixwînim.
Correct: Ez kitêba xwe dixwînim.
For the intended meaning “I read my own book”, the subject and owner coincide. The standard reflexive pattern uses xwe.
Grammar reference: Thackston, § 7.1 · The reflexive pronoun xwe