Possessive (의)

의 is the Korean possessive particle, functioning like English 'of' or the possessive marker 's. It connects two nouns where the first possesses or is related to the second. 나의 책 means 'my book' and 한국의 문화 means 'Korea's culture' or 'the culture of Korea'.

In spoken Korean, 의 is often dropped or contracted. 나의 becomes 내, 저의 becomes 제, and 너의 becomes 네. In casual speech, many possessive relationships are expressed without 의 at all: 한국 문화 instead of 한국의 문화. However, in formal writing and on TOPIK, 의 is used regularly.

The pronunciation of 의 varies: it is pronounced [의] at the beginning of a word, but as [에] when used as the possessive particle. So 나의 is pronounced [나에]. This pronunciation rule is important for TOPIK listening sections.