back to basics

Today's portion of grammar is all about the English "own."

Let me first ask you this (don't be so extremely lazy and look at the answers below before you've tried):

How would you translate these sentences into English?

Es ist schon, ein eigenes Haus zu haben.

Die eigenen Ziele sind manchmal unrealistisch.

The translations below contain a classic mistake made by German speakers:

It is nice to have an own house.

The own goals are sometimes unrealistic.

The correct version is:

It's nice to have one's own home.

One's own goals are sometimes unrealistic.

The problem is that the English adjective "own"- unlike the German "eigen"- can be used only after a possessive word, like my own car etc

If it is not clear to whom the sentence is referring, the word one's is used.

Note that "own" can also be used without a following noun in the construction "a.... of one's own":

We'd love to have a house of our own.

There is just one case in which "own" is used with "an" and "the". It is with the collocation an/the own goal:

Damn! I think I just shot the own goal of the month.