Japanese Learning: Modifying a noun by another noun; [Noun1] no [Noun2]

We have already learned a construction of Noun predicate sentences. Its positive form is as follows;

1. [Noun1]wa [Noun2]desu.

Example : Watashi wa Dai-Gakusei desu. (I am a university student.)

When you hear this sentence, you probably want to know which university the person studies in. In other words, it would be better to have more information for the predicate “N desu”. You can say;

2. [Noun1]wa [Noun2] no [Noun3] desu.

In this sentence “2.”, Noun2 modifies Noun3 to limit the range of meaning of Noun3. Let us look at an example;

– Watashi wa Niigata Daigaku no Gakusei desu. (I am a student of Niigata Univrsity)

As shown in this example, “A no B” in Japanese is like “B of A” in English. And there　are a lot of students in this world of many types and in many schools. Modification “Niigata Daigaku no” is limiting the range of meaning of the word “students”.

＜説明事項の漏れを防止するために、当ブログの”Japanese Learning”の投稿では、スリーエーネットワーク、”みんなの日本語 初級I 第2版”の練習Aを参照しています。＞