だ
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See also: た and Appendix:Variations of "da"
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Japanese
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Pronunciation
Etymology 1
The hiragana character た (ta) with a dakuten (゛).
Syllable
See also
- (Hiragana) 平仮名; あぁ, いぃ, うぅゔ, えぇ, おぉ, かゕが, きぎ, くぐ, けゖげ, こご, さざ, しじ, すず, せぜ, そぞ, ただ, ちぢ, つっづ, てで, とど, な, に, ぬ, ね, の, はばぱ, ひびぴ, ふぶぷ, へべぺ, ほぼぽ, ま, み, む, め, も, やゃ, ゆゅ, よょ, ら, り, る, れ, ろ, わゎ, ゐ, ゑ, を, ん, ー, ゝ, ゞ, ゟ
Etymology 2
- Forms beginning with だ or で: From the particle で (de) or である (de aru). The lemma form だ itself is a contraction of であ, clipping of である (de aru).
- Forms beginning with な: From classical Japanese なる (naru), whence Modern Japanese な (na, na-inflection ending).
Verb
- (auxiliary) Following parts of speech that do not inflect by themselves, including nouns, na-adjectives, adverbs and postpositional phrases.
- to be
- 彼は無実だ。
- Kare wa mujitsu da.
- He is innocent.
- 冬休みは明日からだ。
- Fuyu yasumi wa ashita kara da.
- Winter vacation is from tomorrow. (Winter vacation starts from tomorrow.)
- 私が子供だった頃
- watashi ga kodomo datta koro
- when I was a child
- 美人で優しい人
- bijin de yasashii hito
- a person who is beautiful and kind
- 大学生ならこれくらいはできるはずです。
- Daigakusei nara kore kurai wa dekiru hazu desu.
- This should be easy for a college student.
- 彼は無実だ。
- should; be obliged to; ought to
- 汚物は消毒だ。
- Obutsu wa shōdoku da.
- The filth should be disinfected.
- お代わりだ。
- Okawari da.
- (Of a second helping) one more please.
- 二度と来るんじゃない！
- Nido to kuru n ja nai!
- Never come again!
- 汚物は消毒だ。
- to be
- (auxiliary) Some forms also follow inflectable words.
- です follows i-adjectives, as the standard polite terminal form for i-adjectives.
- 遅いですね。
- Osoi desu ne.
- You are too slow.
- 遅いですね。
- だろう / でしょう / なら can follow any inflectable word, forming suppletive volitional/polite volitional/conditional forms.
- 飲むなら乗るな！
- Nomu nara noru na!
- If you are to drink, don't drive!
- 彼はきっと成功するだろう。
- Kare wa kitto seikō suru darō.
- He will surely succeed.
- 飲むなら乗るな！
- です follows i-adjectives, as the standard polite terminal form for i-adjectives.
- (auxiliary) Not following any words, but used before some conjunctives or in some inflected forms, to represent the aforementioned statement.
- 山をなめてはいけない。でないと死んじゃうよ。
- Yama o namete wa ikenai. De nai to shinjau yo.
- Don't underestimate the difficulty of mountaineering. If you do, you could die.
- 山をなめてはいけない。でないと死んじゃうよ。
Usage notes
- だ is the only commonly used modern Japanese verb with the terminal form (終止形) distinct from the attributive form (連体形). As relative clauses in Japanese are syntactically equivalent to attributives, relative clauses must end in the attributive form. Thus だ, as a terminal form, cannot appear at the end of a relative clause. The following forms are used instead of だ in such places:
- Use の after nouns, adverbs or prepositional phrases. But use な before the nominalizer の.
- 学生のアリス
- gakusei no Arisu
- Alice, who is a student
- ここまでのあらすじ
- koko made no arasuji
- the plot summary up to now
- 後味もすっきりなのが特徴です。
- Atoaji mo sukkiri na no ga tokuchō desu.
- That the aftertaste is refreshing too is its distinguishing feature.
- 今日は休みなので早起きしてなかった。
- Kyō wa yasumi na no de hayaoki shite nakatta.
- I didn't get up early because it is a holiday today.
- Use な after a na-adjective.
- 実家が裕福な友人
- jikka ga yūfuku na yūjin
- a friend whose family is rich
- Alternatively, である can be used when following nouns and denoting the meaning "to be".
- 学生であるアリス
- gakusei de aru Arisu
- Alice, who is a student
- This word is phonologically an enclitic, similar to particles. It is classified as 助動詞 (jodōshi, “auxiliary verb”) in traditional Japanese grammar.
Conjugation
Conjugation of "だ" (See Appendix:Japanese verbs.)
| Stem forms | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Imperfective (未然形) | だろ では |
daro de wa | ||
| Continuative (連用形) | だっ で |
da' de | ||
| Terminal (終止形) | だ | da | ||
| Attributive (連体形) | である な |
de aru na | ||
| Hypothetical (仮定形) | であれ なら |
de are nara | ||
| Imperative (命令形) | - | - | ||
| Key constructions | ||||
| Passive | - | - | ||
| Causative | - | - | ||
| Potential | - | - | ||
| Volitional | だろう | darō | ||
| Negative | ではない じゃない¹ でない |
de wa nai ja nai¹ de nai | ||
| Negative continuative | ではなくて じゃなくて¹ |
de wa nakute ja nakute¹ | ||
| Formal | です | desu | ||
| Perfective | だった | datta | ||
| Conjunctive | で | de | ||
| Hypothetical conditional | ならば であれば |
naraba de areba | ||
| ¹ Colloquial contraction | ||||
Synonyms
- である (de aru)
- や (ya) (Kansai dialect)
- じゃ (ja) (Some western dialects. Also used in archaic speech in fictional characters or as slang)
- じゃい (jai) (dialect or slang)
See also
Japanese basic inflections
| Verbs | -i adjectives | nouns and -na adjectives | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nonpast | Plain | Affirmative | Use the dictionary form | stem + い (-i) | noun + だ (da) (noun + である (de aru)) |
| Negative | mizenkei + ない (-nai) | stem + くない (-ku nai) | noun + で（は）ない (de nai) | ||
| Polite | Affirmative | ren'yōkei + ます (-masu) | stem + いです (-i desu) | noun + です (desu) | |
| Negative | ren'yōkei + ません (-masen) | stem + くないです (-ku nai desu) stem + くありません (-ku arimasen) |
noun + で（は）ないです (de nai desu) noun + で（は）ありません (de arimasen) | ||
| Past | Plain | Affirmative | ren'yōkei (with onbin sound changes for Group I verbs) + た (-ta) | stem + かった (-katta) | noun + だった (datta) (noun + であった (de atta)) |
| Negative | mizenkei + なかった (-nakatta) | stem + くなかった (-ku nakatta) | noun + で（は）なかった (de nakatta) | ||
| Polite | Affirmative | ren'yōkei + ました (-mashita) | stem + かったです (-katta desu) | noun + でした (deshita) | |
| Negative | ren'yōkei + ませんでした (-masen deshita) | stem + くなかったです (-ku nakatta desu) stem + くありませんでした (-ku arimasen deshita) |
noun + で（は）なかったです (de nakatta desu) noun + で（は）ありませんでした (de arimasen deshita) | ||
| Volitional | Plain | mizenkei (of Group I verbs) + う (-u > -o) mizenkei (of other verbs) + よう (-yō) |
†stem + かろう (-karō) (stem + いだろう (-i darō)) |
noun + だろう (darō) (noun + であろう (de arō)) | |
| Polite | ren'yōkei + ましょう (-mashō) | (stem + いでしょう (-i deshō)) | noun + でしょう (deshō) | ||
| Conjunctive | ren'yōkei (with onbin sound changes for Group I verbs) + て (-te) | stem + くて (-kute) | noun + で (de) (noun + であって (de atte)) | ||
| Hypothetical conditional | kateikei + ば (-ba) | stem + ければ (-kereba) | (noun + であれば (de areba)) | ||