sentence: 私の犬は目が青くて、耳がグレーです。

Why is it not 私の犬の目? I cant differentiate between は and の when used as
possessives
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2019-09-25T04:25:13.937
72076
2019-09-25T05:59:40.633
35471
question
grammar
usage of は and の as posesssives
This は is not a possession marker but a **topic** marker. A very literal
translation of your sentence is:

> 私の犬 **は** 目が青くて、耳がグレーです。  
>  **As for** my dog, eyes are blue and ears are gray.

You are presenting two facts ("blue eyes" and "gray ears") about the dog, so
the topic of the whole sentence is 私の犬 ("my dog").

This `A + は + B + が + predicate` is a very common pattern in Japanese. If you
are not familiar with this, please read:

  * [What is a topic prominent language?](https://eastasiastudent.net/study/topic-prominent/)
  * [Japanese/Grammar/Basic Particles](https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Japanese/Grammar/Basic_Particles)
  * [Topic-prominent language](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topic-prominent_language)
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-09-25T05:59:40.633
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2019-09-25T05:59:40.633
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answer