We can finally tackle the long list of particles. This course will finally be an opportunity to enrich our sentences and push towards more complex constructions, and the first particle that we’ll study in this course is the particle の.
The particle の is the particle of possession. It indicates possession that binds two or more words together.
If I say for example : « The cat of Nikita », the cat is owned by Nikita. In Japanese, it will be the same, but in reverse. Well, even in English you have this particularity. You have the inversion of the possessor and the possessed when we want to express possession.
Remember that we have seen this peculiarity of the Japanese language compared to English, you will very often have to construct sentences in Japanese that will read backwards when it comes to translating them into English. Know that this is not a rule but simply a peculiarity specific to the Japanese language. Of course, the Japanese themselves do not feel like they are talking backwards at all. This way of constructing sentences is specific to their language and natural to them.
At first it will be quite unsettling for you but it only takes practice that you get used to it so don’t worry.
Thus, in Japanese, the sentence with the particle の will follow the following pattern :
Possessor + の + Possessed
So, remember that the possessor is always first and the possessed is always second.
That being said, it’s time to move on to the examples. Let’s go back to the very first example, in Japanese this time :
ニキータの猫。
ニキータのねこ。
Nikita’s cat.
You can see that, in the Japanese sentence, the owner’s name is at the beginning and the name of the possessed is at the end. Since this course is intended for English speakers, I give you the translation with « ‘s » or « ‘ ». It will probably be easier that way.
Let’s continue with a few more examples and pay attention to the order of the words in the Japanese sentence. It will always follow the same pattern : Possessor + の + Possessed
アフリカの象。
アフリカのぞう。
The African elephant.
東山のタオル。
ひがしやまのタオル。
Higashiyama’s towel.
バートランドの犬。
バートランドのいぬ。
Bertrand’s dog.
北の星。
きたのほし。
The North star.
The particle の thus links all kinds of possession. It can be concrete things like in the examples we just saw. A new example for the road :
侍の刀。
さむらいのかたな。
The samurai’s katana.
So, you got it. This is something concrete. But it can also be something more abstract like « the weather of tomorrow. » or « the French writers of the 18th century ».
So, whenever it comes to linking things together in an idea of possessor-possessed, you should always use the particle の.
Now that you understand that, let’s move on to some examples that are a little more complex than the previous ones, but don’t worry, I’ll explain everything to you.
In the following sentences, we will find the copula だ which, I remind you, is the verb to be.
If I want to say :
Hoshino’s cap.
I will write :
星野のキャップ。
ほしののキャップ。
Hoshino’s cap.
Okay, so far, no problem. Everything is going as we have seen. Now I want to say :
This is Hoshino’s cap.
We simply add the copula だ at the end of the sentence.
星野のキャップだ。
ほしののキャップだ。
This is Hoshino’s cap.
Let’s see other examples for the road, always starting from English. If I want to say :
This is Brian’s squirrel.
I will say in Japanese :
ブライアンの栗鼠だ。
ブライアンのりすだ。
This is Brian’s squirrel.
If I want to say :
This is Sherry’s latte.
I will say in Japanese :
シェリーのラテだ。
This is Sherry’s latte.
This is how with this first particle we can enrich our description sentences. Now imagine that we start from Japanese sentences and go to English :
北山の弁当だ。
北山 is a proper name and 弁当 is a noun. Then we have the copula だ at the end. So the sentence translates as :
北山の弁当だ。 → This is Kitayama’s bento.
Now imagine that we start from the following sentence, still in Japanese :
ボブのバックパックだ。
ボブ is a proper western name, therefore written in katakana and バックパック is the english word « backpack ». Then we have the copula だ at the end. So the sentence translates as :
ボブのバックパックだ。 → This is Bob’s backpack.
Now, a third sentence, still starting from Japanese. Take a good look at this one :
キャンピングカーの女だ。
キャンピングカーのおんなだ。
This is the woman (of / from) the motorhome.
Well, you understand that the motorhome here does not « possess » the woman actually. We are talking about a particular motorhome here which is driven by a woman. Note that in English, we can replace eventually « of » by « from ».
Another slightly more difficult example :
旅の男だ。
たびのおとこだ。
This is the traveling man. / This is the man who travels.
Be careful here. Once again, you understand that the man does not own the trip. It would be nonsense. Yet in Japanese, to say « This is the traveling man. / This is the man who travels. », we will use the particle の. Compared to English grammar, there is not the idea of possession here in the sense that we would understand it in English but here, we are in Japanese, and this is how it works. Note also that we will not necessarily translate the particle の as « ’s », « ’ » or « of ».
I give you a few other examples of the same kind to be sure you understood everything said so far :
歯医者のアランだ。
The word 歯医者 . はイシャ means « dentist ». Besides, the word 医者 . イシャ means « doctor » and the kanji 歯 . は means « the tooth / the teeth », so literally « the doctor of the teeth / the dentist ». Remember that the Japanese language does not differentiate between genres.
Here, if we apply what we’ve seen so far, we’d say « This is Alan of the dentists ». Okay, that’s not grammatically incorrect, we could translate like that. But the correct translation is :
歯医者のアランだ。
はいしゃのアランだ。
This is Alan the dentist.
Here you have to understand that in this case the possession is not about something concrete. The idea is that Alan belongs to the category of dentists, hence the use of the particle の. You also see that it is not because we have the particle の in a sentence that we will necessarily translate it by « ‘s », « ‘ » or « of ».
It is important that you remember this little rule well. Many learners forget it and when they find themselves on a sentence with a particle の which does not correspond to the most classic usage, they rub their heads without understanding. This is why it is important to reread the lessons !
It is also possible, as in all other languages of the world elsewhere, to chain possessions. See the example below first in English :
It is the hilt of the sword of the boulder of the forest of the fairy kingdom.
Okay, in Japanese, we’re going to think the sentence backwards. So, this will give us :
妖精の王国の森の岩の剣の柄だ。
ようせいのおうこくのもりのいわのつるぎのつかだ。
It is the hilt of the sword of the boulder of the forest of the fairy kingdom.
Let’s take another example, always starting from English, a little more complex this time :
This is the keeper monster of the castle dungeon of the dark king of the demon kingdom.
Once again, in Japanese, we will think of the sentence backwards. So, this will give us :
悪魔の王国の闇黒の王の城のダンジョンの番人の化け物だ。
あくまのおうこくのあんこくのおうのしろのてんしゅかくのばんにんのばけものだ。
This is the keeper monster of the castle dungeon of the dark king of the demon kingdom.
So, you could see with these two examples that we can link each possession with the particle の.
Now I would like us to take a closer look at the last example sentence we have just seen :
悪魔の王国の闇黒の王の城のダンジョンの番人の化け物だ。
We can easily notice the presence of particles in the middle of all these kanji. And then observe the word 化け物 which means « monster ». You may have heard it before if you watch Japanese anime in original version. The word 化け物 is written with the hiragana け.
Most words in kanji contain hiragana mid or end of the word and are NOT particles. There is no space between words in Japanese so the only way to distinguish particles from words sometimes including hiragana is through learning and regular practice until you acquire the reflex to make the difference.
So, a little logic and common sense can come in handy. Let’s go back to our sentence :
悪魔の王国の闇黒の王の城のダンジョンの番人の化け物だ。
The particle の being the particle of possession, it will always be placed between two words. So, I know that all the kanji words placed before and after the particle are just words. Just as I know that the hiragana だ placed at the very end of the sentence is the copula だ and corresponds to the auxiliary be.
Since we are still studying the particle の, I would like to tell you about a few manga and movies titles and their official English translations which can be quite misleading.
Let’s start with « Attack on Titan ». The original title in Japanese is 進撃の巨人.
If we apply what we have learned so far, we might think 進撃 means « Titans » and 巨人 means « Attack ». But in reality, that’s not the case at all.
進撃の巨人 does not mean « Attack On Titan » but « The Assailant Titan » (or, in the more strict translation « The Titan of the assault/attack »), which is the name of the Titan owned by the character Eren, one of the nine « Primordial Titans ». And I apologize to everyone I spoiled the manga with.
In truth, the author purposely chose a title which could be confusing by playing on the peculiarities specific to the Japanese language, namely that the plural, as we saw in the previous lesson, can be implied as well as the absence of context which could give rise to various interpretations, all this to preserve the dramatic effect.
The second example is the title of a Dragon Ball Z movie : Resurrection ‘F’. The original title in Japanese is 復活の「F」.
If we try to apply what we have learned so far, we quickly realize that there is a problem with the word order. In fact, literally, we would translate as « The ’F’ of Resurrection » because the word « Resurrection » translates in Japanese as « Fukkatsu », much like when we say in English the ‘V’ of Victory. By the way, the big bad in this movie is called « Frieza » so there’s quite a pun on that; pun impossible to translate into English so the title has been rearranged to be understandable for the English public. But to do this, we had to think outside the box of the particle の’s rule.
So that’s all. Above all, do not get confused and remember that the rule of the particle の, it’s : Possessor + の + Possessed.
These cases where it is sometimes necessary to rearrange a title of a manga, novel, anime, film or video game so as not to reveal a plot or because it is necessary to play on the differences between the Japanese language and the English language are quite uncommon but at least you now know that it exists.
If you’ve been reviewing your vocabulary lessons regularly, you should remember your video game franchise vocabulary course. Well, I’m going to use some vocabulary to explain a couple of things about Japanese borrowings words from English.
In English, we have a multitude of small expressions passed into the current language and which serve as shortcuts to express our thoughts more simply. For example, in cycling, instead of saying « the cyclist in the yellow jersey », we simply say « the yellow jersey ». In a clothing store, if you are looking for men’s shirts, you might say « men’s shirts » rather than « the shirts for men ». When you talk about a series or a franchise of films, video games..., you say, for example, « the StarFox series » instead of saying « the StarFox video game series » or « the video games of the Starfox series ». Likewise, instead of saying « a painting by Pablo Picasso », we sometimes say « a Picasso ». Instead of saying « a game of Sonic the hedgehog », you say « a Sonic game ».
All these little shortcuts exist not only in English but also in other Western languages such as Spanish and Portuguese.
Note that in all the examples I have given, the grammatical element which expresses the idea of possession disappears and is simply implied. In Japanese, we can find the same case... where the particle の disappears and the idea of possession remains implied. Let’s take an example already exposed above :
English : the games of the StarFox’ serie
Japanese : スターフォックスシリーズのゲームス
Now observe the simplified versions of the same sentences below :
English : the StarFox’ serie
Japanese : スターフォックスシリーズ
Of course, all these phrases imply that we talk about StarFox’s video game series/franchise.
Let’s take again an example seen above :
English : a Sonic the hedgehog’s game
Japanese : ソニック・ザ・ヘッジホッグのゲーム
Now observe the simplified versions of the same sentences below :
English : a Sonic game
Japanese : ソニックゲーム
Again, the idea of possession is implied although the particle の is not present.
The Japanese did not only katakanize foreign words, mostly English, to make them part of their language. They also katakanized expressions, shortcuts that were already common in English, and then became equally common in Japanese. Of course, the particle の remains widely used. Simply, I give you all these explanations so that you know that these cases where the particle の disappears to be replaced by an English katakanized shortcut exist. It happens and it is even very common, especially when it comes to video game series, movies, anime…
We have seen in this course the main use of the particle の but know that this particle has many other uses that we will see much later. At the moment, I won’t tell you more. As usual, be sure to re-read this lesson. Practice reading and writing the examples given to you.
I am now giving you your exercises. In the first, I give you English sentences to translate into Japanese, and in the second, I give you Japanese sentences to translate into English. Theme and version in short ! And of course, in all these sentences, you will have cases of possession requiring the use of the particle の.
The next particle that awaits you is the particle と thanks to which we will be able to enrich our sentences even further ! But before that, we gonna take a little detour to some vocabulary lessons.
You will see, it’ll be exciting !
Of course, don’t forget the little vocabulary list that awaits you below.
タオル . the towel
侍 .
さむらい . the samurai
刀 .
かたな . the katana
弁当 .
べんトウ. the bentou
バックパック . the backpack
歯医者 .
はイシャ. the dentist, the dental surgeon
妖精 .
ヨウセイ . the fairy
王国 .
オウコク . the kingdom
岩 .
いわ . the rock, the stone, the pebble
剣 .
つるぎ . the sword
柄 .
え . the sleeve, the handle
悪魔 .
アクマ . the demon, the devil
闇黒 .
アンコク . the darkness
王 .
オウ . the king
城 .
しろ . the castle
天守閣 .
テンシュカク . the dungeon
番人 .
バンニン . the keeper
化け物 .
ばけもの . the monster
進撃 .
シンゲキ . the assault, the attack
巨人 .
キョジン . the giant
復活 .
フッカツ . the resurrection, the rebirth
The particle of possession