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Questions tagged [particle-の]

助詞「の」. Genitive case particle showing relationships between two nouns, such as possession. Also used for apposition (同格), to indicate subjects in relative clauses, and as a nominalizing particle (準体助詞).

Genitive case is the grammatical case that marks a noun as modifying another noun. A genitive construction involves two nouns - the head (modified) noun and the modifier noun. The modifier noun modifies the head noun by expressing some property of it.

A nominaliser is usually an affixed morpheme or a particle, that changes another part of speech into a noun or a noun phrase.

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What is the meaning of ～んです/～のだ/etc?

This sentence ending has started to creep up more and more in my current Japanese classes, and I'm still a bit unsure what all it can mean, how to use it, or even when I should think to use it. My Japanese teacher in a previous class mentioned that…
user1316
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How does the の work in 「日本人の知らない日本語」?

I've read that 日本人の知らない日本語 translates to: "Japanese (language) that Japanese (people) don't know". But I don't understand how or what the の does in that sentence. If I'm not mistaken 知らない日本語 could mean "Japanese language that (x) don't know" or…
dotnetN00b
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Is ending question sentences with の really feminine?

In What differences should I look out for between male vs female speech?, a lot of answers explicitly mention that ending question sentences with の is feminine. However, this makes very little sense to me, as my understanding is that の is pretty…
Darius Jahandarie
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So-called の-adjectives - how does の *really* work?

Ok, so there seems to be some controversy over whether we can really say that there are 'の-adjectives', or whether we simply use a noun in an "attributive" way (a term which I don't actually really understand). But it's clear that there's something…
Karl Knechtel
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If Vて+いる isn't a gerund, then what is it?

I always thought that a verb ending in the て form along with the いる suffix was the English equivelent of the "ing" form of a verb. Thus: see = 見{み}る, seeing = 見{み}ている do = する, doing = している However, according to the Wikipedia entry on gerunds, a…
Questioner
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What is the role of の in 「お父さんのバカ!」

How did the の get in the expression 「◯◯のバカ!」? Was the expression originally longer? Is there any other example of usage other than insults? (other example I know of: 「つよし君のエッチ!」 or anything to the same effect) Edit: Another example by Pacerier:…
syockit
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When to use 他【ほか】の or 他【ほか】に

I always thought only 他の existed, but my teacher uses 他に a lot. Are there differences between when each can be used? Here are two examples of each from my online dictionary: だれかほかの人に聞いてごらん (Ask somebody else for help) ほかに行きたい人はいますか (Is there anyone…
atlantiza
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Blue blistering barnacles, what is Captain Haddock saying?

For those who might not be familiar with the series Tintin (soon to be in a major motion picture, by the way), there is a character named Captain Haddock who is famous for shouting out colourful exclamations when he gets upset. His signature…
Questioner
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What is the significance of の in 「鳥の詩」?

I've seen it used in many places, and sometimes it feels like a connection between words. For example in 「鳥の詩」 (tori no uta), it looks as if the の is connecting 鳥 (tori) and 詩 (uta), and I would like to know what it represents, in this case at…
Madcowe
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What is the difference between は and のは?

The following sentence means "seeing all the different foreign people was interesting." This, according to my Japanese friends is incorrect: 色々な外国人を見ているは面白かった。 ... and this is correct: 色々な外国人を見ているのは面白かった。 To me, the difference is so subtle that…
Questioner
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Meaning of のだろう?

I'm not sure when should I use particle の in front of だろう/でしょう? Is のだろう used when the speaker wonders about something to himself? For example, what would be the translation of these sentences: 日本は、これからますます高齢化が進むだろう。 It seems that lately the aging…
laiman
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Can I use more than one possessive の in a row in the same sentence?

I already know the main usages of の as said here, but I was wondering: If I want to use the possessive indicator in a row, is it correct? For example, if I wanted to say "My family's car is blue.", could I write something like this…
Alenanno
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Contraction of particle の to ん before nouns in colloquial Japanese

I am familiar with contraction of の to ん before です (and variants で, だ, でした etc) but I noticed that の is also contracted before 家 in spoken set-phrases like あたしんち and おれんち. Are there any other instances where の is contracted before some particular…
Lukman
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相手の日本人 or 日本人の相手?

If I wanted to describe the person I was speaking about as being Japanese, to me it seems natural to say: 日本人{にほんじん}の相手{あいて} ... however, one time a Japanese teacher told me it's more correct to say: 相手{あいて}の日本人{にほんじん} ... but that never sat…
Questioner
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私と同じ or 私のと同じ when comparing possession

This question made me think. 彼の車は私と同じです。 His car is the same as mine. Except that isn't a literal translation. A literal translation would be "His car is the same as me". But I am not a car. Would it be incorrect to add a の into this sentence…
user3856370
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