Nouns that never change
A Japanese noun has one form. Number, definiteness and who owns it all come from context or from other words.
の for possession
Noun + の + noun works like English “’s”. With pronouns it gives the possessive: 私の (my, mine), あなたの (your), 彼の (his).
の for describing: “a Japanese teacher”
の also links a noun that describes another: what it is about, what it is made of, where it is from. English often just puts the two nouns side by side.
| Phrase | Meaning | Kind of link |
|---|---|---|
| nihongo no sensei | a Japanese teacher | subject: teaches Japanese |
| Nihon no kuruma | a Japanese car | origin |
| ki no tsukue | a wooden desk | material |
| natsu no yasumi | summer holidays | time |
| tomodachi no Tanaka-san | my friend Tanaka | the same person |
| ongaku no zasshi | a music magazine | topic |
Position words: on, in, in front of
Japanese has no prepositions like “on” or “under”. Instead it uses position nouns after の: “the desk’s top”, “the box’s inside”. Then a particle like に says where something is.
Chaining の
You can link several nouns, each の adding a level. Read from the end to translate into English.
の as “the one” and “mine”
When the main noun is obvious, it can be dropped, and の stands in for it. 私のです means “it’s mine”; after an adjective, の means “the … one”.
こと and もの: abstract and concrete things
Two nouns mean “thing”. もの is a physical object; こと is an event, fact or matter. They also build many fixed expressions.
| Phrase | Meaning | Noun |
|---|---|---|
| tabemono | food | もの: thing |
| nomimono | drink | もの |
| wasuremono | something left behind | もの |
| daiji na koto | an important matter | こと: matter |
| kinō no koto | what happened yesterday | こと |
| watashi no koto | me, things about me | こと |
の instead of が in descriptions
Inside a description before a noun, the subject can take の instead of が. It sounds a little more written.
Nouns joined without の
Many common pairs join directly, becoming one word. The second word sometimes changes its first sound (rendaku).
Check yourself
Join the nouns, then open the answer.
- my book私 + 本
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私の本. - Japanese teacher日本語 + 先生
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日本語の先生. - on the desk机 + 上
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机の上. - mineこれは私（ ）です。
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の: これは私のです. - the red one赤い + の
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赤いの.
Nouns that become verbs with する
Many nouns, especially two-kanji ones, become verbs by adding する (do). 勉強 (study, the noun) becomes 勉強する (to study). This is how Japanese makes most new verbs, including from English.