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6 comments

1. I quite like the explanation in this article:

   [https://m.japanesemeow.com/japanese-grammar-lessons/possession-and-position-with-no/](https://m.japanesemeow.com/japanese-grammar-lessons/possession-and-position-with-no/)

2. How far along is your Japanese learning? Seeing all of the usages may confuse you further. Besides, all of the usages will be too much to post here. I would get a grammar book or search on the internet to start.

3. How far are you? Also, if you can’t *understand* something yet, you certainly shouldn’t try to use it

4. [https://www.imabi.net/theparticleno.htm](https://www.imabi.net/theparticleno.htm)

   [https://www.imabi.net/theparticlenoii.htm](https://www.imabi.net/theparticlenoii.htm)

5. which usages are you already familiar with?

6. Most common usage is to indicate possession:

   私の食べ物 (my food)

   or to nominalize verbs (similar to こと, but a little more personal):

   食べるのが好き (I like to eat)

   There’s also のだ, which another sort of nominalization and I believe is technically an adaptation of ので, but it’s most often contracted as -んだ. This one is harder to translate, but given the utterance:

   食べたんだ！

   I like to think of it as “Oh, so you ate!”

   It kind of alludes to some context:

   *Someone starts putting his shoes on*

   どこに行くんですか？ (So, where are you going?)

   This form can be a little more complicated than this, but that’s a basic idea.

   * Disclaimer, this is based on my observations as an L2 speaker of Japanese, so if someone with more experience can clarify any mistakes, please do!