Particle "No"
Particle "no" in Japanese is not "no" in English. It usually
comes after the word and show possession or belonging.
Its role is similar to "someone's" or "of" in English.

Watashi no hon My book
Anata no hon Your book
Kare/kanojo no hon His/her book
Saitoo-san no hon Miss. Saitoo's book
Nihon no kaisha A Japanese company
Nihon no kaisha no shachoo The president of the Japanese company
As "no" in the sentence of "nihon no kaisha no shachoo" it combine
the words and give more information about the words but if it is used
many times, it makes the sentence complexed. We don't say "nihon no
kaisha no shachoo no tomodachi no neko" (A cat of a friend of the
president of the Japanese company) but say, "nihon no kaisha no
shachoo wa tomodachi ga ite, kare wa neko wo katteiru." (The president
of the Japanese company has a friend and he has a cat.)



Plurals
There are no so strict rules between singular and plural in
Japanese except when it is definitely needed. I means there
are rules for numerals but when it is easy to understand
whether a singular or plural from the context or situation,
you don't have to differentiate.
Hon a book
Watashitachi no hon Our books
Saitoo-san wa kaishain desu Miss. Saitoo is an office worker
Saitoo-san to Tom-san wa kaishain
desu
Miss. Saitoo and Mr.Tom are office
workers
We have to think "a book", " books" / "an office worker" or "office
workers" in English but when it come to Japanese we don't have to
think about it.



Articles
There are no articles in Japanese. We say "a" book, "the"
book, "an" office worker in English but we don't have to
think about it in Japanese.
Hon desu This is a book
Sagashiteiru hon wa kore desu ka? Is this the book you are looking for?
Saitoo-san wa kaishain desu Miss. Saitoo is an office worker


Ok, let's practice! Click me

Go Home | Back