Watashi no is the Japanese expression for ‘my’ or ‘mine’, explained

How to say “my” in Japanese

Japanese native speakers would say “watashi no”. It is the Japanese expression for ‘my’. Depending on the situation and context, it can also be used to mean ‘mine’. In this blog post, I will explain it in detail based on its components. And also, I will explain how Japanese people use it. Let’s get started!

Contents

• Definition and meanings of “watashi no”
• Components of “watashi no”
• Example #1: how to use “watashi no” meaning ‘my’
• Example #2: how to use “watashi no” meaning ‘mine’
• More simplified expression meaning ‘mine’
• Summary and the rest

Definition and meanings of “watashi no”

First of all, let me start with a definition and meanings of “watashi no”.

• watashi no – 私の (わたしの) : a phrase meaning ‘my’ in Japanese. Depending on the situation and context, it can also be used to ‘mine’ in Japanese.

Its definition and meanings are relatively simple and clear, I think. To understand it a bit more, however, let me explain its components in detail.

Components of “watashi no”

Below are the ones.

• watashi – 私 (わたし) : a pronoun meaning ‘I’ in Japanese. In formal situations, regardless of gender, almost all Japanese people use it to refer to themselves. In casual situations, on the other hand, mainly Japanese women use it.
• no – の : a case particle put after a noun to make its possessive case. In the phrase, it is put after the pronoun, “watashi”, to make its possessive case.

From these two components, we can understand that “watashi no” is literally the possessive case of “watashi”. So, it corresponds very well to “my” which is the possessive case of “I” in English.

In principle, Japanese nouns are not conjugated or changed at all, so their grammatical cases can be changed only by using proper particles. “No” is one of them. It can be put after a noun to make its possessive case. This is how the phrase, “watashi no” is made.

To understand how Japanese people use this phrase, please take a look at the following example conversation between two Japanese, Haru and Aki.

Example #1: how to use “watashi no” meaning ‘my’

Below are new words used in the example.

• kore – これ : a demonstrative pronoun meaning ‘this’ in Japanese.
• wa – は : a case particle working as a case marker or topic marker. In the example, it is put after the pronoun, “kore”, to make the subject word in the sentence.
• dare – 誰 (だれ) : an indefinite pronoun meaning ‘who’ in Japanese. In the example, it is changed to its possessive case with help of the case particle, “no”. So, the formed phrase, “dare no”, has been translated as “whose”.
• kappu – カップ (かっぷ) : a noun meaning ‘cup’. Depending on context, it can also be used as the plural noun. Learn more about Japanese plural.
• desu – です : an auxiliary verb put after a noun or adjective to make it polite. In the example, it is put after the noun, “kappu”, to make it sound polite.
• ka – か : a sentence ending particle put at the end of sentence to make a question.
• sore – それ : a demonstrative pronoun meaning ‘that’ in Japanese. Depending on context, it can also be used to mean ‘it’. In the example, it works as the subject word thanks to the binding particle, “wa”.

As the example shows, the phrase, “watashi no”, is normally put just before a noun to describe it. In this regard, its usage is completely the same as that of the English possessive case, “my”. So, Japanese learners who are familiar with English can easily understand how to use it, I think.

In actual conversation, Japanese people quite often use an abbreviated expression. Please take a look at the example below.

Example #2: how to use “watashi no” meaning ‘mine’

The previous example conversation can be paraphrased as follows, with the abbreviated expression.

As you can see here, “sore”, “wa” and “kappu” in the answer have been omitted. To tell the truth, Japanese people quite often omit the subject word in a sentence. So, here, the subject part, “sore wa”, is very neglectable. Therefore, let me focus only on the change from “watashi no kappu” to “watashi no”.

In English, we often use a pronoun instead of a noun mentioned already in order to avoid the duplication and also for the sake of better understanding. In Japanese, to avoid the duplication, Japanese native speakers often omit a noun after the possessive case. Perhaps, it would not lead to a better understanding of meaning, but this is what they usually do.

For this reason, “kappu” after “watashi no” has been omitted. It is mentioned by Haru, so Aki doesn’t need to explicitly refer to it again. In a way, because of this omission, Haru can understand that Aki still refers to “kappu” with the phrase, “watashi no”. As you may have realized, in this case, “watashi no” works in completely the same was as the English possessive pronoun, “mine”, does. This is the reason I explained that it can be translated as “mine” depending on the situation and context.

In casual conversation, just saying “watashi no” to mean ‘mine’ is quite understandable and acceptable. To understand this point, please take a look at the example conversation below.

More simplified expression meaning ‘mine’

The previous example can be simplified more.

Here, “desu” in the answer has been omitted too. In casual conversation, just saying “watashi no” to mean ‘mine’ is very possible. Actually, Japanese native speakers quite often use it like this. In formal situations, however, we should use it with the auxiliary verb, “desu”, to make it sound polite.

Summary and the rest

In this blog post, I’ve explained the phrase, “watashi no”, in detail based on its components. Let me summarize them as follows.

• watashi no – 私の (わたしの) : a phrase meaning ‘my’ in Japanese. Depending on the situation and context, it can also be used to mean ‘mine’. Normally, it is put just before a noun to describe it. Its usage is the same as that of “my” in English. Japanese people quite often omit a noun after this phrase. In this case, it works like a possessive pronoun and corresponds well to the English one, “mine”.

In this blog post, I have focused only on the pronoun “watashi”. Yet, this does not mean that other pronouns cannot be used together with the case particle, “no”. “Watashi” can be replaced by other pronouns like “kare” which means ‘he’ in Japanese.

Hope my explanations are understandable and helpful for Japanese learners.