的 can be used: to show possesion: -我的好友: "My friend" to form a relative clause; in other words, to change the "that I saw" in "the book that I saw" into an adjective: "我看的書": "I saw 的 book" to denote the use of an adjective as a relative clause: 給我那本書: "give me that book" 哪本: "which one?" 大的: "the big one" for emphasis: 妳看起來很高興的: "you look really happy!"

if you want to describe something,then the adjectives in english can be translated with 的 in Chinese."好看的" example,好（good OK）看（look） 的---》these 3 characters"好看的" combined an adj here.In chinese 好 can be a n,not adj sometimes.So it is easy to see 的 is useful and most used in Mandarin here :) I dont know if I am right,but i feel like this....my mother tongue is Mandarin

的 can be used as " somebody's"....I think in this case ,的 combines the subject or ppl ------>as a result being a pharase (adj. pharase).........我的 mine,你的 your，lily的，lily's,好的 fine，漂亮的beautiful，十分的very,大的 big，小的 small。all are representing adj. if translated in English here

‘的’just like 'of', you can try to enter this webset : http://baike.baidu.com/view/23810.htm hope it willl helpful

"of" in your question "the use of" means 的