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I already know the main usages of の as said
[here](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/283/what-is-the-
significance-of-no), but I was wondering: If I want to use the possessive
indicator in a row, is it correct?

For example, if I wanted to say " _My family's car is blue._ ", could I write
something like this example?

> 私の家族の車は水色です。

And are there restrictions or alternatives to this I'm not aware of?
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2011-09-01T17:43:44.940
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2014-11-09T14:49:29.867
2017-04-13T12:43:43.857
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particle-の
Can I use more than one possessive の in a row in the same sentence?
There is no restriction on the number of `の`s you can string together.

It might get a little silly looking after a point, but there is no grammatical
rule that prevents it.
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2011-09-01T17:49:43.830
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Your example is perfectly correct and natural. Using ～の twice in a row is
usual. (I am not so sure about particles other than の, but in this answer, I
will focus on repetition of の.)

How about more repetitions? I agree with Dave M G that, as far as
_correctness_ is concerned, you can use as many ～の as you like. However, if a
sentence uses ～の many times in a row, it starts to look strange. In general,
using the same construct again and again is usually considered as a poor
practice.

For example, if a hypothetical report is titled 敬語の用法の習得の困難さの原因の考察, it is
understandable (“Consideration of Reasons for the Difficulty of Learning the
Usage of Honorifics”) and probably most people agree that it is _correct_.
(This example is partly based on rdb’s comment on Dave’s answer.) This example
does not have an issue with ambiguity which Axioplase (rightly) raised.
Nevertheless, this title is _awkward_ because of the repeated uses of の.
敬語の用法の習得 **が** 困難 **である** 原因の考察 sounds better.

Some people even say that you should not use ～の three times in a row for good
writing. [Here is an
example](http://itpro.nikkeibp.co.jp/article/COLUMN/20100430/347675/).
However, funny part of that text is in its correction: one of the “good
examples” in an older version of the text contained ～の three times in a row! I
think that the lesson is that there is no firm rule about the number of times
you can use ～の in a row in good writing, although unfortunately it does not
seem that the author learned this lesson.
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2011-09-01T18:30:12.183
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2011-09-03T12:10:30.903
2011-09-03T12:10:30.903
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A simple problem is that you don't know the span of what comes around の.

> 私の姉にプロポーズした友達

Is it (私の姉)にプロポーズした友達, the friend who asked my sister to marry him?  
Is it 私の(姉にプロポーズした)友達, My friend who asked to marry some girl/sister?

Just in that simple case, you have an ambiguity. Even with your example, in
fact:

> 私の家族の車は水色です。

Is it 私の(家族の車) or (私の家族)の車?  
In the first case, I talk about the car of my family but not about the car of
your family. In the second case, I talk about the car of my family, but not
about the house of my family. This too is ambiguous.

The more の you stack up, the more ambiguities you get, maybe exponentially.
This can make comprehension very hard.
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2011-09-02T02:06:14.143
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2011-09-02T06:11:16.363
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