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Question to Teacher: Dochira No???
Course 1 Lesson 1: What is it? (About This Lesson)

BradenKun

Post Date: 2021-04-02 05:55:14

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2018 Feb 09

Questions: 21
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I have been learning Japanese for a bit but dochira no as well as dore no stump me. Such as in kono tokei wa dochira no kuni no desu ka. Why couldn’t it be kono tokei wa kuni no dochira desu ka? I know dochira means which one as well as dore but what is the no doing here? In English which doesn’t really have a ownership way to spell it unless you said which ones which then it would be “this watch, which ones countries is it?” Which doesn’t sound right and I don’t think no is being used to link nouns here as in aka no kuruma “red car” where no is being used to link red and car. Could you help me clear this up? It seems the same for kore and sore and are as in how could this and that have ownership forms? “This’s Cat” or “That’s Cat” doesn’t make sense. Thank you!

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JFZ Teacher (Kanako)

Post Date: 2021-04-13 06:45:52

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このとけいはどちらのくにのですか。(KONO TOKEI WA DOCHIRA NO KUNI NO DESUKA)
= Which country does this watch belong to? / In which country was this watch made?

The の between どちら and くに is simply connecting the pronoun and the noun together rather than showing possession/ownership.

Let me give you some examples using pronouns and nouns.

1) わたしのうち (WATASHI NO UCHI / my house) – ownership
2) あなたのほん (ANATA NO HON/ your book) – possession
3) だれのかばん (DARE NO KABAN/ whose bag?) – possession
4) こちらのへや (KOCHIRA NO HEYA/ this room)
5) どちらのへや (DOCHIRA NO HEYA/ which room?)
6) あちらのせんせいのへや (ACHIRA NO SENSEI NO HEYA/ that teacher’s room over there)

It is clear that the の in #1, #2 and #3 are used to show possession.
The の in #4 and #5 are just linking two nouns/pronouns.
As for #6, の is used in both ways (linking nouns & possession). The particle is not limited to only one use.

It may help if you simply memorize the following patterns.

❶　(pronoun) の (noun) 　
　
ex. わたしのとけい (my watch)、かのじょのなまえ (my girlfriend’s name)

Since it starts with “a pronoun”, you cannot say くにのどちら (KUNI NO DOCHIRA).

❷　(noun) の (noun)　
　
ex. あかのくるま (red car)、ともだちのけいたい (my friend’s cell phone)

As for your last question, you cannot use これ and それ when you say “this cat” and “that cat”. この and その are used instead.

このねこ (KONO NEKO) = this cat
そのねこ (SONO NEKO) = that cat

The どの group is introduced in Course 2 Lesson 3.

I hope this helps :)