Using の
“What difference does it make how much you have? What you do not have amounts to much more.” - Seneca
At this point, you only have to ask the question: “My what?”
わたしの えんぴつ です。
It is my pencil.
あなたの くるま です。
It is your car.
わたしたちの じてんしゃ です。
It is our bicycle.
Of course, you can use past, negative, and past negative tenses with the right tweaking.
わたしの えんぴつ でした
It was my pencil
あなたの くるま じゃありません
It is not your car
わたしたち の じてんしゃ じゃありませんでした
It was not our bicycle
All this is pretty simple, I think. You’re just taking one of these possessive words and adding what it is these things are possessing. Let’s do that with things other than “My,” “Your,” and “Our.”
こういちさん の みず ですか？
Is it Koichi’s water?
Boboさんの こども じゃありませんか？
Is it not Bobo’s child?
ひろゆきさん の ともだち でした。
(He) was Hiroyuki’s friend.
In fact, this reminds me of a video you watched a while back (okay, fine, I planned this the whole time, deal with it). Let’s take a look at this mysterious video, and see what it has to offer in terms of learning about the particle の.