Basic Particle も, と ,や, and の

One of the most important keys to understanding Japanese are particles and so today we’re going to learn 4 simple but super helpful Japanese particles!! They are
も, と, や and の. Let’s start~

Particle も

First is particle も . It’s being used to say that a topic also has the same description/characteristic as previous topic mentioned. When being used, it will replace は in the sentence structure.

The examples below shows that the 2nd sentence’s topic is the same noun as the 1st.

This example below shows that the 2nd sentence’s topic, あなた has the same characteristic as the 1st sentence’s topic かのじょ

And this last example show that the 2nd sentence’s topic わたし will also do the same action as the topic mentioned in 1st sentence かのじょ.

Particle と (listing complete nouns)

The particle と that we’re going to learn is the most basic one. We use particle と in order to list two or more words together.

The usage is simple. Just put と after each nouns in the list. Note that you can safely omit the last と in the list. Check out the sample below:

Particle や (for incomplete list)

We can only use particle と to describe a complete list. Now, to describe an incomplete list, we will use particle や. When you use や, it means there are other things apart from the things you mention in the sentence.

The formula is the same as と .Add や after each of the nouns.
So it becomes: A や B や C や. In English, it can be translated as:
– such as A, B, and C
– such as A, such as B, such as C

When you want to add etc in the list, you can add など in the end of the list, like this example below. Contextually, the example below can also be translated as:
“In the zoo, there are animals such as zebra, lion, giraffe, etc“

So again, try not to take the English translations as literal translations of the Japanese sentence word-by-word. It will confuse you. Always try to grasp the context.

Particle の (noun modifier)

Using this particle, you can explain more details about a noun, adding additional description to it. For example: to specify ownership/possessions of things/nouns or to give locations of nouns.

The sample below shows the ownership detail of a noun.

The sample below shows the location detail of a noun.