だ

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

Usage notes

• This word is phonologically an enclitic, similar to particles. It is classified as 助動詞 (jodōshi, “auxiliary verb”) in traditional Japanese grammar.
• This verb only applies to nouns and na-adjectives. An i-adjective or verb alone suffices to end a sentence or clause. For example, 美しい (utsukushii) could mean "it's beautiful" as a complete grammatical sentence, analogous to 綺麗だ (kirei da, “It's pretty”).
  • The polite form です (desu) can be applied to i-adjectives, while だろう (darō) / でしょう (deshō) and なら (nara) can be applied to both i-adjectives and verbs.
• だ cannot be used to introduce a relative clause ending in a na-adjective or noun – 学生だアリス doesn't work, nor does です here. However, some of the conjugations of だ can: 学生であるアリス (Alice who is a student), 学生だった/であったアリス (Alice who was a student), 学生ではない/じゃないアリス (Alice who is not a student), 学生ではなかった/じゃなかったアリス (Alice who was not a student).

Conjugation

Synonyms

• である (de aru)
• や (ya) (Kansai dialect)
• じゃ (ja) (Some western dialects. Also used in archaic speech in fictional characters)

See also

• です (desu) (polite)
• ございます (gozaimasu) (humble)