The pronominal adjective svoj

The English sentence 'Pete took his book' can mean two things:

(1) Pete took his (his own) book.
(2) Pete took his (somebody else's) book.

In Russian there is no such ambiguity. The special adjective свћй means 'belonging to the same person as the subject of the clause'. You can use it in place of мћй, твћй, нђш, вђш with no difference in meaning, but you can't use it in place of егћ, её, ќх because the meaning will be different.

Пљтя взїл егћ кнќгу.	Pete took his book. (somebody else's)
Пљтя взїл своє кнќгу.	Pete took his book. (his own book)
Онќ взїли ќх кнќги.	They took their books. (other people's)
Онќ взїли своќ кнќги.	They took their books. (their own books)
Ї взїл своє (or: моє) кнќгу.	I took my book.
Ћн стоќт не на своём мљсте.	It's not in its place.