一人の人 A person that is alone. 人である人 A person that is alone.
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2022-10-14T23:15:26.917
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2022-10-16T04:45:03.233
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question
word-choice particle-の
What is the difference between の and である when used in the same context?
の is a very generic noun-linking particle, and `AのB` can be translated like
"A's B", "B of A", "B as A", "B that is A" and so on (see [this
answer](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/40896/5010)). On the other hand,
`AであるB` basically only means "B that is A", so it is sometimes useful to avoid
ambiguity. For example, 子供の先生 can possibly mean both "the child's teacher" or
"a child teacher" (e.g., a 8-yo girl teaching math), whereas 子供である先生 only
means "the teacher who is a child".

Besides, you may choose to use `AであるB` intentionally when you want to
emphasize the "A = B" relationship. For example, while 緑のカップ is the ordinary
way to say "a green cup", someone may intentionally say 緑であるカップ ("a cup that
is green") when you want to emphasize the "green" part.

(By the way, 一人の人 typically just means "one person" or "an individual",
although it can refer to "a lonely person" depending on the context. 一人である人
sounds a bit puzzling, but it might refer to "a person as an individual", "a
person who is alone" or something. I used other examples because the story
gets complicated when numbers are involved.)
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2022-10-16T04:34:18.660
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5010
96659
answer