One of
no
's most common functions is to indicate possession,
in a manner similar to the use of the apostrophe in
English:
Tanaka-san
no
kuruma
Mr./Ms. Tanaka's
car
But the range of
the functions of no
is much wider than just its
simple possessive function. For example, it is also used to attribute
one
noun to another:
Nihon
no
kuruma
(a) Japanese car
Another common
function of no
is to indicate the possessive form of personal
pronouns such as she, he, they, etc. In Japanese you don't have to
learn
separate possessive forms for pronouns. You just add
no
to a regular pronoun:
watasi (I /female)
---> watasi no
(my /female)
boku (I /male) ---> boku no
(my /male)
kare (he) ---> kare no
(his)
kanojo (her) ---> kanojo no
(hers)
karera (they) ---> karera no
(their)
watasitati (we /female) ---> watasitachi
no
(our /female)
bokutati (we /male) ---> bokutati no
(our /male)
anata (you) ---> anata no
(your)
Just as there are
no possessive pronouns in Japanese, there also are no articles,
such as "the", "a", or "an". no
therefore is used to indicate a location or a
position in a way that would require the use of "the" in
English.
tukue
no
ue
[desk] [on]
on (the) desk
ki
no
ue
[tree] [above]
above (the) tree
heya
no
naka
[room] [in]
in (the) room
kuruma
no
usiro
[car] [behind]
behind (the) car
yuubinkyoku
no
tonari
[post office] [beside
beside (the) post office
no
is also used in a way that would require the objective case of a
pronoun
in English:
kare
no
usiro
behind him
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