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Question to Teacher: The Use of the の Particle
Course 1 Lesson 11: Counting Things (Grammar)

Maru-maru

Post Date: 2022-04-16 10:12:15

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2020 Apr 24

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In the short dialogue section towards the end of lesson 11, it uses the phrase:

きょうのおすすめはなんですか。

Why exactly does this phrase use the の particle instead of just using は as the first particle and then が as the second particle like other sentences have done?

I know the の particle is used to show possession as well as turning nouns into adjectives, but I'm confused as to what の is doing in this phrase.

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Jose7822

Post Date: 2022-04-16 19:38:51

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2021 Feb 28

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Hi Maru-maru,

First of, I’m a learner of the language like you, so I apologize for any mistakes, but I’ll try to answer your question. In this sentence, の is being used as a possessive particle. The translation would be:

きょうのおすすめはなんですか。= What is today’s recommendation?

きょうのおすすめ = Today’s recommendation.

If you wrote it as you said, with は and が, it would translate slightly differently:

きょうはおすすめがなんですか。= Today (as opposed to other days) what is recommended (or what is your recommendation)?

The first part inside the parenthesis highlights what the は particle is doing in this case, and the second part in parenthesis is just an optional translation since the meaning can change based on the context. As you may, or may not know, in Japanese it is normal to drop pronouns until a distinction is needed. Since I don’t have any context to go from, I put two possible translations.

In any case, の is just a possessive here. That’s the short answer :-P.

HTH

Maru-maru

Post Date: 2022-04-20 20:07:05

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2020 Apr 24

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So きょうのおすすめはなんですか。is simply showing today's (きょう) possession of recommendation (おすすめ) in a similar way that a phrase like:

あなたのおすすめはなんですか。(What is your recommendation?)

would be showing your possession of recommendation?

Jose7822

Post Date: 2022-04-22 05:48:02

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2021 Feb 28

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Exactly!

Maru-maru

Post Date: 2022-04-22 09:34:22

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2020 Apr 24

Questions: 2
Comments: 3

Thanks for clearing that up for me. Overthinking the smaller details always seems to give me the most trouble. I'd like to double-check something if you don't mind answering another question related to the の particle.

Since の modifies a noun into an adjective, is the の particle still required if an actual adjective like 'big' (おおきい) or 'beautiful' (うつくしい) is used?

I'm assuming that if the word ends in い then those words are I-adjectives and の is dropped, and if they're nouns that need to modified then の is used instead, correct?

Jose7822

Post Date: 2022-04-22 14:57:05

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2021 Feb 28

Questions: 1
Comments: 38

No worries. I do the same thing lol.

As for your other question, your thinking is correct. The particle の is not needed for most い adjectives, except for 少ない (sukunai) and 多い (ooi). However, you need to first convert them to adverbs before tagging the の particle to them. This is better explained in the following article:

http://www.guidetojapanese.org/blog/2008/10/28/peculiar-properties-of-「多い」-and-「少ない」/

For connecting nouns, the particle の is used, though there are also some exceptions to this rule as well. For example, when two or more words are considered as one word:

一般相対性理論 (ippan soutaisei riron) = lit. General Relativity Theory.

There are other usages for the particle の, but you’ll learn about them as you progress in your learning of the language. Keep up the good work!

HTH!