の

の marks possession in Japanese. It links a possessor to the thing possessed, like 'X's Y' or 'my/your Y'. It also allows a shortened, stand-alone possessive form when the possessed noun is understood from context, especially with the copula だ/です. In daily speech, の is used broadly for ownership, relationship, and attributes. When used with personal pronouns (私の, あなたの, 彼の, 彼女の), it also forms phrases meaning 'mine', 'yours', etc., sometimes dropping the noun entirely in casual replies. Key points: - Place の between possessor and object: 私の本, 彼の車, 兄のペン. - The possessed noun can come after の to form Noun1 の Noun2; the first noun is the owner. - For standalone possessives, の can be followed by だ/です: これは私のだ。 = This is mine.