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In Classical English you can say either "the house of Elrond" or "Elrond's house", with the same meaning. Both phrases describe kinds of houses.
The first one has the word "house" at the beginning and the second one at the end.
Japanese has not so much choice. There is nothing like "of" in Japanese. All Japanese phrases for kinds of houses must have the word meaning "house" at the end:
ELULONNDO no ie
エルロンド の いえ
Elrond's house / the house of Elrond
In some cases the no の cannot be translated as "of", it means "which is":
ouji no HAMULETO
おうじ の ハムレト
the hamlet who is a prince / Hamlet the prince / prince Hamlet
ha'isha no HAMULETO
はいしゃ の ハムレト
Hamlet the dentist
As in English, two words can be joined without an "'s" to name a particular kind of the second:
kulokuma
くろくま
blackbear (a kind of bear)
mizuilo
みずいろ
watercolor (light blue)
keana
けあな
hairhole (pore of the skin)
kemushi
けむし
hairbug (caterpillar)
kagianaLike "blackbird" in English, a kulokuma くろくま is a bear of a particular race, not just any bear that happens to be black. A bear that happens to be black is called kuloi kuma くろい くま.
かぎあな
keyhole
U / RU verbsHow to Read Japanese Mangainvert phrases to be more specific
Copyright (c) 2003-2008
Jordi Mas Trullenque.
email: jordimastrullenque at gmail dot com
http://purl.oclc.org/NET/manga/espno.en.html
Last revised: 2008-10-08