{"id":56,"date":"2009-03-10T12:20:13","date_gmt":"2009-03-10T16:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/?p=56"},"modified":"2018-02-07T14:29:05","modified_gmt":"2018-02-07T14:29:05","slug":"japanese-grammar-the-no-%e3%81%ae-particle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/japanese-grammar-the-no-%e3%81%ae-particle\/","title":{"rendered":"Japanese Grammar: The no (\u306e) particle"},"content":{"rendered":"

When you want to say “my name” or “his friend” how will you say it in Japanese?\u00a0 In order to complete this exercise you’ll need to know the Japanese possessive called no (\u306e<\/strong>).\u00a0 Take a look at this sentence: watashi no namae (\u308f\u305f\u3057 \u306e \u306a\u307e\u3048<\/strong>).\u00a0 Notice that the no (\u306e<\/strong>) goes between the word watashi (\u308f\u305f\u3057<\/strong>) and namae (\u306a\u307e\u3048<\/strong>).\u00a0 Watashi (\u308f\u305f\u3057<\/strong>) means “I” while namae (\u306a\u307e\u3048<\/strong>) means “name”.\u00a0 Since the no (\u306e<\/strong>) possessive is after the watashi (\u308f\u305f\u3057<\/strong>), you know that the person who is doing the possession is “I”.\u00a0 So in English this would change to the word “my”.\u00a0 Altogether the sentence watashi no namae (\u308f\u305f\u3057 \u306e \u306a\u307e\u3048<\/strong>) means “my name”.<\/p>\n

The no (\u306e<\/strong>) particle is used to connect nouns together. This means that the no (\u306e<\/strong>) particle has a wide range of uses other than just a possessive particle.\u00a0 For example, wasada daigaku no gakusee (\u308f\u3055\u3060<\/strong> \u3060\u3044\u304c\u304f \u306e \u304c\u304f\u305b\u3044<\/strong>) connects the noun daigaku (\u3060\u3044\u304c\u304f<\/strong>)\u00a0to gakusee (\u304c\u304f\u305b\u3044<\/strong>).\u00a0 Let’s break this sentence down.\u00a0 Wasada daigaku (\u3060\u3044\u304c\u304f<\/strong>) is a proper noun.\u00a0 Daigaku (\u3060\u3044\u304c\u304f<\/strong>) means college and Wasada (\u308f\u3055\u3060<\/strong>) is the name of the college.\u00a0 Next, gakusee (\u304c\u304f\u305b\u3044<\/strong>) means “student”.\u00a0 Altogether the phrase wasada daigaku no gakusee (\u308f\u3055\u3060<\/strong> \u3060\u3044\u304c\u304f \u306e <\/strong>\u304c\u304f\u305b\u3044<\/strong>) in English means, “A student at Wasada College” or “A student of Wasada College”.<\/p>\n

There are a couple of things to note here with the phrases, “(A) student at Wasada College” and “(A) student of Wasada College”.\u00a0 One, there is no “a” or “the” function in Japanese.\u00a0 That’s why the “A” is in parentheses.\u00a0 Second, the no (\u306e<\/strong>) particle in this instance can mean “at” or “of” in English.\u00a0 This just goes to show how flexible the no (\u306e<\/strong>) particle is.<\/p>\n

Another thing to note is that the first noun is the more descriptive noun, while the second noun is the general noun.\u00a0 For example the phrase, “kookoo no sensee” (\u3053\u3046\u3053\u3046 \u306e \u305b\u3093\u305b\u3044<\/strong>) has the first noun, kookoo (\u3053\u3046\u3053\u3046<\/strong>) as being the more specific noun, while the sensee (\u305b\u3093\u305b\u3044<\/strong>) noun is the main idea.\u00a0 Kookoo (\u3053\u3046\u3053\u3046<\/strong>) means high school.\u00a0 Sensee (\u305b\u3093\u305b\u3044<\/strong>) means teacher.\u00a0 Altogether the phrase “kookoo no sensee” (\u3053\u3046\u3053\u3046 \u306e \u305b\u3093\u305b\u3044<\/strong>) means “high school teacher”.<\/p>\n

That’s it for today, see you next post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When you want to say “my name” or “his friend” how will you say it in Japanese?\u00a0 In order to complete this exercise you’ll need to know the Japanese possessive called no (\u306e).\u00a0 Take a look at this sentence: watashi no namae (\u308f\u305f\u3057 \u306e \u306a\u307e\u3048).\u00a0 Notice that the no (\u306e) goes between the word watashi…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[259497,2798,2813],"class_list":["post-56","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-grammar","tag-grammar","tag-no-particle","tag-possessives"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t