Czech to Dutch: whose possession, which antecedent and what agreement?
Separate the owner from the ending on the possession
Czech third-person possessives do not all behave alike. The Academy dictionary identifies jeho as invariant for a masculine or neuter singular owner, její as a declining feminine-owner possessive, and jejich as an invariant plural-owner form. An ending on její can therefore reflect the possessed noun’s grammatical requirements without changing whose possession is meant.
Dutch haar identifies a feminine personal possessor; it does not acquire a new case ending whenever the Czech noun phrase changes role. A Czech phrase about her house can appear in several cases while continuing to describe the same owner and house. Translate the relationship instead of treating each inflected Czech possessive as a different Dutch owner.
Onze Taal gives haar nicht for her female cousin or niece and zijn vader for his father. These short examples demonstrate the direction of reference: the possessive concerns the possessor, while the following noun identifies the family member. Do not select Dutch haar merely because the possessed Czech noun is feminine.
A company is not a masculine person
For nonpersonal antecedents, Dutch reference can follow the grammatical gender of the Dutch noun. Onze Taal illustrates het bedrijf with zijn and de organisatie with haar. A company described with zijn has not thereby become a male employee. The expression refers back to a neuter business noun.
This creates a specific Czech-to-Dutch decision. Czech jeho can refer to a neuter owner as well as a masculine one; the source form alone does not prove personal male reference. Establish whether the antecedent is a person, institution or object, then determine the appropriate Dutch reference from the translated antecedent.
Changing the noun used for an institution can consequently change the best Dutch possessive without changing the institution itself. A translation that chooses a different target noun must build a consistent chain of reference around that noun. Copying the source possessive in isolation can make a sentence appear to refer to an employee instead of the organization.
Czech reflexive reference can require a contextual Dutch choice
Czech normally uses svůj when the relevant subject is also the possessor. The Czech Academy explicitly distinguishes this from ordinary third-person possession. That source choice can tell the translator whose belongings are involved even when the owner is not repeated by name.
Dutch editorial guidance treats possessive reference after words such as everyone or who as context-sensitive. Taaladvies recommends haar when the known referents are exclusively female. Its discussion also offers reformulations where a generic masculine possessive would introduce an unwanted male interpretation. These are wording choices, not permission to invent a participant’s gender.
Thus a Czech instruction with svůj addressed to a mixed or unspecified group should not acquire an exclusively male interpretation simply through a routine Dutch possessive. Preserve whether ownership belongs to each participant individually or to a shared group, and use a complete construction that expresses that reading. The source reflexive supplies a relationship; it does not always supply a single target word.
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