kanojo no koibito wa onaji daigaku no gakusei desu.

Her partner is a student at the same university.

Breakdown of kanojo no koibito wa onaji daigaku no gakusei desu.

• は: topic particle
• です: to be
• 学がく生せい: student
• の: possessive case particle

Questions & Answers about kanojo no koibito wa onaji daigaku no gakusei desu.

How is this sentence structured in Japanese? Which part corresponds to her, boyfriend, same university, and student?

The basic structure is:

• 彼女の恋人 – her boyfriend/partner

  • 彼女 – she / her
  • の – connects 彼女 to 恋人 (possession/association)
  • 恋人 – romantic partner (boyfriend or girlfriend)

• は – topic marker: “as for her boyfriend…”

• 同じ大学の学生 – a student of the same university

  • 同じ – same
  • 大学 – university
  • の – connects 大学 to 学生 (student of the university)
  • 学生 – student

• です – polite “is / am / are”

So Japanese is basically:
[Her boyfriend] (topic) [same-university’s student] is (polite).

What does the particle の mean here, and why is it used twice?