Japanese Grammar Lesson 3: The Particle の (no) –

Review Notes
Today we learned how to use the Japanese particle の (no) to show possession. We
learned how to say “my umbrella” and “Sara’s umbrella.” In this review we will look at
some more examples and learn more uses of the particle の (no).

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Using the particle の (no) to show possession:

★　The Japanese particle の (no) when used as a possessive particle, is similar to

the ‘s in English.

★ 　 Although we change the form of the subject in English to make the

possessive (he➡his, me➡my, Sara➡Sara’s) there is no need to change the form in
Japanese. All you have to do is put the subject plus the particle の (no), and then the object
that the person has.

★ 　 Just as in English, this can be used for human relationships as well (ex. my dad, my
friend). See more examples below.

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Example 1:

今日はわたしのたんじょうびです。

Kyō wa watashi no tanjōbi desu.

Today is my birthday.

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Example 2:

かのじょのねこはかわいいです。

Kanojo no neko wa kawaii desu.

Her cat is cute.

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Example 3:

わたしのいもうとはしょうがくせいです。

Watashi no imōto wa shōgakusei desu.

My little sister is an elementary school student.

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Example 4:

あれはかれのくるまです。

Are wa kare no kuruma desu.

That is his car.

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Using the particle の (no) to tell location:

★ 　 Telling location using the particle の  is fairly easy, but you will need to know the
vocabulary to do it. Here are some examples of this use of the particle の.

ベ ッ ド の 上 　  Beddo no ue 　 　 　 on the bed
つ く え の 下 　  Tsukue no shita 　  under the desk
学 校 の 近 く 　  Gakkō no chikaku  near the school
私 の 前  　 　 　 Watashi no mae     in front of me
いすの後ろ　  Isu no ushiro 　　 behind the chair
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Thinking of の as the word of:

★　Sometimes it can be helpful to think of the particle の as the English word “of.”

★　The one thing you have to remember if you are going to think of it this way, is that the
order of the words is opposite from English.

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Example 1:

にほんごのほん

Nihongo no hon

Book of Japanese (Japanese book)

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Example 2:

えいごのせんせい

Eigo no sensei

Teacher of English (English teacher)

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Tips and advice:

Be careful!! You can not simply leave out the no and just say nihongo hon or eigo

sensei.

★　Also, sometimes even if you reverse the order it will still make sense, but mean
something completely different. Look what happens if we try to reverse one of the
examples above.

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Example 2 Reversed:

せんせいのえいご

Sensei no eigo

The teacher‘s English
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Another use of the particle の:

★　Although this usage seems pretty different from the others that we have seen so far, it is
still fairly simple.

★　In this usage, I guess you could think of の as a comma. It’s function is to bring the two
nouns together to show a relationship.

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Example 1:

ともだちのけいこさんです。

Tomodachi no keiko san desu.

This is my friend, Keiko.

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Example 2:

クラスメイトのたなかさんにあいました。

Kurasumeito no tanaka san ni aimashita.

I met with my classmate, Tanaka.

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Conclusion:

Today we learned about the Japanese particle の. We learned to use it to show

possession or relationships between nouns, to tell location, and to modify or describe other
nouns.

Although this is one of the easier particles to learn, there are a lot of ways you can use it so
be sure to look over the review carefully!