When to use particle "no"

[Creagco8523]

I don't have the Japanese keyboard installed on this computer so I apologize.

I know that the particle "no" is possessive but I am a bit confused on when to use it. For example if I wanted to say something like kore Watashi no kazoku no shashin desu. But if i wanted to simply say that it was a new picture would I just say kore wa Watashi no atalashi shashin desu? Or to phrase it another way if you do you use the "no" particle after descriptive words indicating that the subject of the sentence posses that trait?

[Psy]

I don't have the Japanese keyboard installed on this computer so I apologize.

I know that the particle "no" is possessive but I am a bit confused on when to use it. For example if I wanted to say something like kore Watashi no kazoku no shashin desu. But if i wanted to simply say that it was a new picture would I just say kore wa Watashi no atalashi shashin desu? Or to phrase it another way if you do you use the "no" particle after descriptive words indicating that the subject of the sentence posses that trait?

Howdy there. It's been quite a long while since I've dropped by this forum, but since I'm here again I might as well make myself useful: The short answer to your question is yes. The particle no gets around a lot in Japanese, so much so that in fact that you'll find Japanese learners of English using the word "of" in places that can both amuse and (to those without a background in nihongo) baffle us westerners. You can quite comfortably chain several items together in a sentence without it sounding weird. In your case, adding watashi no (of me; my) to atarashii shashin (new picture) indicates that the picture in question either belongs to you or is of you (the actuality of this will be clear from context).

Incidentally, the possessives for kore, sore and are are kono, sono and ano, respectively.

Hope this helps. Happy studies.