Hey do you wanna study some Japanese?

の、の、の、の！

OK. Geez. Nvm.

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Come on, let's just study a little bit. It'll be a breeze...

The particle の is pretty amazing.

It has quite a few uses, and once you master all of them you'll be able to say a wide variety of interesting things in Japanese.

Here we are looking at what is perhaps the least cool usage of の: marking possession.

Long story short, の is the equivalent of an apostrophe "s" used to show that one thing belongs to another.

We all know the word ペン (pen), yeah?

And my name is ニコ (Niko). And I'm blessed to spend my life with an awesome girl named レイ (Rei). Thus:

Niko's pen
→ ニコのペン

Rei's pen
→ レイのペン

There are many words for "I" in Japanese, yeah? The polite standard for all genders is 私 (わたし). If you're a guy, you can use 僕 (ぼく) in polite or casual language. Or you can use the rougher-sounding 俺 (おれ) in casual conversations. If you're a girl, you can say あたし pretty much any time.

So...

My pen
→ 私のペン
→ 僕のペン
→ 俺のペン
→ あたしのペン

To reiterate:

X の Y
= X's Y

X and Y are both nouns.

Let's have a look at some examples.

Must-Know Vocabulary:

弟（おとうと // younger brother）
名前（なまえ // name）
彼（かれ // he）
彼女（かのじょ // she; girlfriend）
春子（はるこ // Haruko [a common girl's name in Japan])

Sentences...

これはレイちゃんのペンです。
これ　は　レイちゃん　の　ペン　です。
This is Rei-chan's pen.
Literally: "this + は + Rei-chan + の + pen + です."
Note: ～ちゃん is added to the end of people's names in some cases. It's mostly used for people or animals that the speaker considers cute, which is why you'll hear it most often at the end of girls' and children's names.

彼は僕の弟です。
かれ　は　ぼく　の　おとうと　です。
He is my younger brother.
Literally: "he + は + I + の + younger brother + です."

彼女の名前は春子です。
かのじょ　の　なまえ　は　はるこ　です。
Her name is Haruko.
Literally: "she + の + name + は + Haruko + です."

Leveling Up

の is a bit more versatile than just marking simple possession. In some ways, it is a lot like the word "of" or the Spanish word "de."

Put another way, we'll simply see that の is used a lot to connect two nouns.

Explaining is draining, as they say. So let's just look at some examples.

Here are some nouns:

ここ（here）
パン（bread）
紙（かみ // paper）
本（ほん // book）
小学校（しょうがっこう // elementary school）
先生（せんせい // teacher）
来年（らいねん // next year）
夏（なつ // summer）
妹（いもうと // younger sister）

Now we can connect these nouns using the almighty power of の！

You're sitting at a French restaurant in Tokyo with your homies, and you tell them:

ここのパン美味しいよ。
ここ　の　パン　おいしい　よ。
The bread here is really good.
Literally: "here + の + bread + tasty + よ."

One of your friends is trying to get you to buy a Kindle, but you know Barnes & Noble is life, so you say:

紙の本が好き。
かみ　の　ほん　が　すき。
I like paper books.
Literally: "paper + の + book + が + liked."

You meet an amazing girl at a party, and she mentions that she loves kids. She then asks you what you do. Having absolutely no foresight whatsoever, you lie, saying:

小学校の先生です。
しょうがっこう　の　せんせい　です。
I'm an elementary school teacher.
Literally: "elementary school + の + teacher + です."

Your mom calls and asks, "When are you gonna get your life together?" All you want is for her to get off your back, so you say:

来年の夏です。
らいねん　の　なつ　です。
The summer of next year.
Literally: "next year + の + summer + です."

Suddenly, you're Japanese. And you have a little sister named Akane. When you introduce her to people, you say:

妹のアカネです。
いもうと　の　アカネ　です。
This is my little sister Akane.
Literally: "younger sister + の + Akane + です."

Some things to notice: Often when we say "NOUN NOUN" in English, it becomes "NOUN の NOUN" in Japanese. The same is true of "NOUN of NOUN."

We saw:

bread here → here の bread
paper books → paper の books
school teacher → school の teacher
sister Akane → sister の Akane
summer of next year → next year の summer

If that doesn't make sense, maybe you need to go back and read our examples again.

If you look in a Japanese dictionary, they like to list all of the situations in which this happens with の. Just look at all of the translations of の on this page.

But I don't think we need to worry about that. All we need to know is that の often connects two nouns. Often, not always. For really common noun pairs, we don't always need の. But we can worry about that some other day.

That's all for this one! の more studying.

And の more lame jokes.