LinguaThe owner comes first
AのB means “B of A”, and the order is fixed: whatever qualifies comes before の, and the thing being qualified comes after. わたしのほん is my book; ほんのわたし would be nonsense. The relation is wider than ownership – にほんごのせんせい is a teacher of Japanese, ちちのかいしゃ the company where my father works, とうきょうのだいがく a university in Tokyo. Whenever two nouns stand together, の is what holds them.
| Phrase | Relation |
|---|---|
| わたしのほん | ownership |
| にほんごのせんせい | subject taught |
| ちちのかいしゃ | place of work |
| とうきょうのだいがく | location |
| かぞくのしゃしん | what is pictured |
A noun can be left out after の
If the second noun is already obvious, Japanese drops it and leaves の standing: asked whose bag this is, you answer わたしのです – “mine”. The particle keeps the meaning by itself. This is the same economy that lets the topic disappear, and it is why a Japanese conversation looks so much shorter on the page than its translation.
これはちちのかばんですThis is my father's bag.
そのかばんはわたしのですThat bag is mine.
Words in this lesson
| Word | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| の | of, belonging to | わたしのほん my book |
| ほん | book | えいごのほん an English-language book |
| かいしゃ | company | おおきいかいしゃ a big company |
| にほんご | the Japanese language | にほんごはむずかしいです Japanese is difficult. |
| えいご | the English language | えいごのしんぶん an English-language newspaper |
| さい | years of age | いもうとはじゅっさいです My younger sister is ten years old. |
| かぞく | family | かぞくのしゃしん a photograph of the family |
| ちち | my father | ちちのくるま my father's car |
| はは | my mother | ははのなまえ my mother's name |
| くるま | car | あかいくるま a red car |
Exercises
This lesson has 10 exercises in the app:
- multiple choice: 3
- match the pairs: 1
- fill the gap: 2
- build the sentence: 2
- translate the sentence: 1
- listen and type: 1
Try the first one
Which phrase means a book that belongs to you?
The answer, the other exercises, the audio and your progress are in the app – free at A0 and A1.