How do you combine several nouns in Japanese?
Use a particle の
When combining several nouns, a particleの (no) is put between them.
For example,
フランス + パン = フランスのパン
Furansu + pan = Furansu no pan
French bread
日本 + 食べ物 + 寿司 = 日本の食べ物の寿司
Nihon + tabemono + sushi = Nihon no tabemono no sushi
Sushi, Japanese food
Combining order
When combining nouns in Japanese,important nouns are placed at the end of the string.
The left noun decorates the right noun.
So, for example,
病気の人
Byouki no hito
sick person
Here, 病気 (sickness) decorates 人 (person) and together they make up the meaning of sick person.
*We don’t have an adjective equivalent to “sick” in Japanese.
However, if we say,
人の病気
Hito no byouki
Sickness of the people
Now it’s 病気 (sickness) that has become the main noun.
*人 (hito) can refer to one person or several people.
Tips
For beginner level, there are two nouns that we need to pay attention to.
These are :
学生
gakusei
student
会社員
kaisyain
employee / worker
because there are also,
生徒
seito
student
社員
syain
employee / worker
The big difference is thatthe two nouns below need “of where” word.
So for example, we say
わたしは学生です。
Watashi wa gakusei desu.
I’m a student.
わたしは会社員です。
Watashi wa kaisyain desu.
I’m an employee (worker).
but we have to say
わたしは富士山大学の生徒です。
Watashi wa Fujisan daigaku no seito desu.
I’m a student at Fujisan University.
わたしは富士山カンパニーの社員です。
Watashi wa Fujisan kanpanii no syain desu.
I work for Fuji Company.
*We can add school or company information to 学生 (gakusei : student) and 会社員 (kaisyain : employee).
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