Is It a Particle or an Affix?

If it's a particle, do- is there a particle for each item in the series or does just go at the end of the phrase? That could depend on language. Some people talk about the case- the- the cases being marked by particles, other people write them as if their, uh, suffix is on the word. But there's no way to test which one is true because the noun always comes at the endof a noun phrase. And the particle will always follow the noun. So exactly how do you make a test? Right.