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I understand (correct me if I'm wrong) that da is a short casual form of desu. But what does it mean in this phrase? or why it is used?

Tabeta bakari da.

Pablo
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    It doesn't mean anything else. Here, too, `"da" is a short casual form of desu`. What exactly is your question? – Earthliŋ Apr 20 '16 at 14:07
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    tabeta is to eat , bakari is "just" or something, so what meaning adds "da" to the sentence? is a verbal tense or something? – Pablo Apr 20 '16 at 14:10

3 Answers3

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ばかり【bakari】 is a 副助詞 (adverbial particle), which is derived from the 連用形 (-masu stem) of the verb はかる. But the particle (and 連用形 in general) behaves much like a noun. (Join to other noun-like words with の, make into a predicate by adding だ, etc.)

Now you essentially have a noun phrase 食べたばかり. To make a sentence out of this, you have to add だ・です (or だった・でした in the past tense).

This is the same as in

本だ。
hon da.
[This] is [a] book.

Earthliŋ
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  • Your answer raised me another question actually. Why taberu behaves like a noun? is there a list of noun-like verbs and words in japanese? or is it how is used in this sentence what makes it noun like? – Pablo Apr 21 '16 at 18:22
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    @Pablo *Taberu* doesn't behave like a noun. I think you may have misunderstood the answer. –  Apr 22 '16 at 01:22
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    @Pablo *taberu* is a verb, did you mean to ask about *bakari*? *bakari* does behave like a noun. This is true for many *-masu* stems of verbs. Sometimes the *-masu* stem would be best thought of as a particular conjugation of a verb (still "flexible"), but sometimes the *-masu* stem has "hardened" into a noun, e.g. 受付 = 受け付け (= *-masu* stem of the verb 受け付ける). There shouldn't be a "list of exceptions"; as far as I can tell it is a general feature of Japanese. (I don't have any examples where the *-masu* stem of *taberu*, which would be *tabe*, behaves like a noun, though.) – Earthliŋ Apr 22 '16 at 06:45
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    ^ I can only think of 三角食べ – Chocolate Apr 22 '16 at 09:33
  • I missunderstoond you before, I thought you were saying both of them (the particle and the verb) behave like a noun, thanks! – Pablo Apr 22 '16 at 11:03
  • 終止形の「だ」はカタコトに聞こえるからあまり使わない方が良いよ – nariuji May 01 '16 at 06:20
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    @nariuji そうですか。「食べたばかり**だ**よ」とよく聞くと思いますが。 – Earthliŋ May 01 '16 at 08:38
  • 「よ」は終助詞ですね。原形のままの言葉は日常であまり使わないんじゃないかなあ。 – nariuji May 01 '16 at 09:43
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    @nariuji 「『食べたばかり』のほうが『食べたばかりだ』よりも自然なのか」というのは、もともとの質問「なぜ『食べたばかりだ』で『だ』を使うか・使えるか」とはまた別だと思います。 – Earthliŋ May 01 '16 at 10:14
  • 文末が副助詞で終わる言葉は暗黙の省略があるので(「スープを飲んだだけ(のところです)」「いつも食べてばかり(います)」)、 これを助動詞「だ」で終わるのは、活用の元となる原形を付けるため述語だと理解しています。 もし活用がないなら私は必須では無いと思います。文法書等はこれを必須と書いているのでしょうかね。 – nariuji May 03 '16 at 10:01
  • 付けるための述語* Sorry for my typo. – nariuji May 03 '16 at 14:28
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    「さっき～～したばっかり**だ** /です。」「今さっき帰ったばかり**だ** /です 。」「さっき帰らはったばっかり**や** 。(だ→や in Kansai dialect)」「～～してばっか(り) **や** 。」などはカタコトには聞こえませんし、普通に使えると思います。くだけた日常会話では、「だ」を省いたり代わりに「よ」を使ったりもしますが、きちんとした書き言葉などでは「～ばかりだ。」「～したばかりです。」「～したばかりである。」などにしますし、文法的には正しいです。 – Chocolate May 04 '16 at 07:05
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    「スープを飲んだだけのところです」はどういう意味ですか。 – Chocolate May 04 '16 at 07:11
  • 「あとは～ばかり」「いつも～ばかり」「まだ～ばかり」はそれぞれ"食べる・食べて・食べた"が入りますが、 これが必ず｢だ｣を付けることになっているかどうかだろうか。 例えば「なぜなら～だから」は助動詞なし。なぜなら「だ」が既に助動詞だから。 だが、助詞の種類が少し違うとはいえ、それらの違いはこじつけにしか見えないな。 – nariuji May 06 '16 at 21:47
  • 私の内容は、丁寧語や語調を整える語尾も含めて、ただの原形「だ」で終わる言い方は通常多くはない、と言ったもので、それが元々の論点だと思います。 「です」でも「だよ」でもそれは原形のみとは違います。質問にも「です」については先に書かれていました。 私も、なぜ「だ」を除いてはいけないのか疑問です。 – nariuji May 06 '16 at 22:17
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  1. [食]{た}べたばかりだ。(Tabeta bakari da)
    I have just eaten.

  2. 食べたばかりなの？(Tabeta bakari nano?)
    Have you just eaten?

  3. 食べたばかりではない。(Tabeta bakari dewa nai)
    I have not just eaten.

There is a writing style named 論文調 that is for an essay in Japanese, and the end of sentence is 'da/dearu' meaning the assertion. It seems that any examples of the language textbooks use this style usually. That is a mechanical style at the opposite end of the polite style of expressions such a honorific language, and it is a kind of literary style.

Community
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nariuji
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    Does "it means 1" mean 「食べたばかり means 食べたばかりだ」? – Chocolate Apr 20 '16 at 16:41
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    Where did you get 食べたばかり (without だ) from? It's not in the question. I don't quite understand how this answers the question "why do we need *da* in *bakari da*?". – Earthliŋ Apr 20 '16 at 19:59
  • I think that だ is required because it is a predicate. However, in the case of ばかり＋だ, it is often omitted in spoken language. Whenever the word at the end of a sentence is not a predicate, I almost think that is abbreviated. There is a style called 体言止め as an exception tho. そう思った私。 – nariuji Apr 22 '16 at 15:40
  • @nariuji I think you should add what you said in your comment to your answer, since it's relevant to the question. – Earthliŋ Apr 23 '16 at 20:17
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As you said, “だ” is a colloquial form of “です,” a predicate meaning “is, am,” and "食べたばかりだ” means “I’ve finished meal just now.”

“だ” here functions as I am in the state of having finished meal just now.

Yoichi Oishi
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