Lesson 9: The possessive no

In our everyday conversations, one of our basic needs is "possession". We always say what belongs to us and what does not. In english, we usually use either the apostrophe " 's " to do so or "of". There are other options as well. But in Japanese, there is only one way to show possession and that is with the particle NO.

The Particle NO

In Japanese, the particle NO is a connector. In a sentence, you put the Owner first followed by the particle NO and the object. It is a very simple particle and very useful.

Owner + NO(の) + Object = Possession

Example:

わたしの　いぬ                                 = Watashi no Inu

(My dog)

わたしの　いぬ    です                     = Watashi no Inu desu

(It is my dog)

せんじさんの　いえ            　　     = Senji-san no ie

(Senji's house)

せんじさんの　いえ　です　　     = Senji-san no ie desu

(It is Senji's house)

せんじさんの　いえ　ですか　　 = Senji-san no ie desu ka

(Is it Senji's house ?)

きみの　もの　ですか　　             = Kimi no mono desu ka

(Is this your thing ?/ Is this yours?)

In the last example, "kimi (きみ)" means "you" but with the particle it becomes "yours". You can also use "anta (あなた)".  The noun "mono (もの)" means "thing" but when you use it in a sentence it has a different feel to it: Kimi no mono desu ka => Is this yours?

Pretty simple so far. You might have noticed that in the first example "Watashi no" doesn't mean "I" but "my". Japanese is very convenient in this. "Watashi no" means "my". "Anata no" means "yours" in English. The particle NO makes the difference. "Watashi" and "Anata" change automatically from "I" and "you" to "My" and "Yours" because of this particle.

Example:

わたし                                                 = Watashi

(I)

わたしの                                              = Watashi no

(My)

あなた                                                  = Anata

(You)

あなたの                                               = Anata no

                                              (Yours)

So far so good. Keep in mind that the order never is reversed as in English. In English, you could say "The driver of the Hotel" but in Japanese the order is not altered.

Examples:

The driver of the Hotel

うんてんしゅ（運転手)                         = Untensha

   (driver)

ホテルの　うんてんしゅ（運転手）   = Hoteru no Untenshu

           (The Hotel's driver / The driver of the Hotel)

This is what makes this particle so simple. It doesn't alter its order. You always use it the same way.

Vocabulary

テーブル, ベッド and コンピュータ are words borrowed from English that is why they are written in Katakana and not in Hiragana. Other than that, the list is very simple and contains some common objects you can use to practice with the particle NO.