Particle の and hierarchy of info


Sentence:

> 先生、こちらは学校の友達のJennyです。

This sentence is an example of の's ability to convey a hierarchy of
information, but I still don't get how you would know where to put the two のs.
How do you use の in this sentence?




の can represent two different types of relationship.

  1. belonging (AのB = A's B, B of A)
  2. apposition (AのB = A that is B)

In your example, "学校の友達" describes the former type of relationship (i.e., 友達
belonging to the 学校), and "友達のJenny" describes the latter type of relationship
(i.e., "My friend Jenny"). You have to get used to it.

(BTW, 'of' in English is similar; compare "The city of London" and "A city of
UK".)

See this question for details: [What's the difference between 日本人の学生 and 日本の学生
?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/40892/5010)

