In Genki 1 L2 grammar section about これ/それ/あれ, it gives an example to not use -re series words when introducing people.
The example was これは ともだちの メアリ一さんてす
I translated and understood the sentence as: This is Mary’s friend. However, the translation provided was “This is my friend Mary.”
I tried to google translate the sentence and it gave me the same translation. Read a tofugu article about the の particle but wound up even more confused.
Can someone kindly explain why its translated that way?
5 comments
First point: ‘Mary’s friend’ is 「メアリーのともだち」
Second, の doesn’t only indicate possession but in general allows a noun to modify another noun. ‘This is Mary, (who is) my friend’.
This is Mary’s friend = これは **メアリ一さんの**ともだち てす.
This is my friend, Mary = これは **ともだちの** メアリ一さんてす.
I believe の can sometimes be used to connect a modifier, apart from possession. (Modifiers are nouns that describe other nouns. e.g. **flower** vase) In this case, “my friend” modifies Mary.
As for this thing. It is my friend Mary. You are referring to Mary as a thing.
As for this person. She is my friend Mary.
At first glance [の appears to have a bunch of functions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_particles#no) (and in a way it does), but they can all be thought of at a fundamental level as doing the same sort of thing. の allows one thing (before the の) to modify another thing (following the の).
You can think of AのB as describing B as a subset of A. This is easiest to see when indicating possession – e.g. 私の車 (my car) – the car that belongs to the set of things that I own. Similarly, ともだち**の**メアリーさん describes Mary as belonging to the set of my friends.
の allows a noun to describe another noun.
There are a fair few Marys in the world, but this particular one is your friend. Using the same restriction technique as タケシのせんこう (There are a few majors and the one belonging to Takeshi limits it to one), we can further define Mary as out friend.