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Japanese Language Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [copula]

コピュラ. Words such as だ・です or constructions such as である which link a noun or adjective to a subject. Similar to English 'be'.

See also

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What exactly is "なの" (nano)?

I asked a female Japanese friend to translate a sentence for me and it ends in "nano" which I took to be either an alternative question particle to -ne or -ka; or possibly two particles I don't know which could come together. But just now I looked…
hippietrail
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What does っす at the end of a sentence mean?

I saw a sentence like: 「それ使{つか}ってるっす。」 and none of my dictionaries have an entry for just "っす". Is it a verb form, gobi, or something else?
sartak
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Why can't だ be used after an I-adjective?

I have been constantly told that だ can not be placed after an I-adjective. Why is that?
Herb
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のだから vs のだ (んだから vs んだ）

When I learnt this grammar point a while ago, my teachers told me not to use it with "から". There reasoning for this was that のだ already implies a reason or supporting information for a conclusion. Even reading through the answers for "What…
phirru
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や in Kansai-ben when it is not だ

The following sentence occurs in The Legend of Zelda: ナンカ　コウテ　クレヤ (This would be なんか買うてくれや！ and was famously translated as "Buy somethin', will ya!".) From the 買うて, it's obvious he's speaking Kansai-ben, and I suspect that this usage of や is…
Kef Schecter
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When to use だ before と思います?

If you want to state what you think you can put と思います at the end of a sentence. However I noticed that sometimes you're supposed to put だ before と思います so that it becomes だと思います, and sometimes you're not. How do you know when to put だ before と思います…
language hacker
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correctness of い adjective + です

Generally, in all Japanese language classes, the rule you're taught is that です does not follow い adjectives. Instead, い adjectives can act like stative verbs, and as such terminate a sentence by themselves. However, I have heard this usage…
Zach
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Is 「３人いるだと」 grammatical?

３人いるだと！？ Can you say ３人いるだ as a statement? If だと is simply だ + と, I would expect ３人いるんだと.　Is だと considered a particle in its own right, with different rules than だ? Transcription of the contents of the picture: A: [何]{なに}がどうなってる!!    …
Axe
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Can だ ever be used in a question?

I learned in Tae Kim's Grammar Guide that だ cannot be used when asking a question. But in the book Japanese Sentence Patterns for Effective Communication by Taeko Kamiya, I found several example sentences that used だ in a question. I also have seen…
Miguel
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です after some verbs (ほしいです)

I've learned that です means something like the state of being, or close to the "be" verb. Recently I found the following phrase: 犬がほしいです。 Why does it end with です if I am saying that "I want a dog"? (the verb is "want").
Thiago Fassina
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「です」, what is it really? Is my analysis correct?

At an elementary level, often, Japanese learners are taught that です is equivalent to the verb "to be" in English. Typical example: 私は学生です, I am a student. That's fine, after all, it works. And to be honest, most people probably wouldn't really…
Tommy
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Can one say なそうです instead of だそうです when expressing hearsay?

At first, I thought the answer was simply that you can only use だそうです (because that's all I have ever seen), but today I read the entry for そう in the Handbook of Japanese Grammar (1940s) by Henderson (PDF via arxiv.org) and was surprised to see that…
Nicholas
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Difference between どこですか and どこにいますか/どこにありますか?

(1) 本はどこですか。 (2) 本はどこにありますか。 Unless I'm mistaken, both those sentences mean something like "where is the book", what's the difference between using です and あります to indicate position? I wouldn't have said (2) for "where is the book" but in an…
Teleporting Goat
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What is だって when it's at the beginning of a sentence?

I have read several definitions of だって but none of them seem to make sense when I see it at the beginning of a sentence and I read the context. I saw one example Japanese sentence and in the English translation だって wasn't translated into…
language hacker
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-的 adjectives modifying nouns without な

Am I correct in thinking that these are ok without a na: 1) 印象的な事実 2) 印象的事実 3) 客観的な事実 4) 客観的事実 But these need a na?: 5) 明らかな事実 6) ＊?明らか事実 7) 簡単な事実 8) ＊?簡単事実 (From a quick look, Google results count seems to support this). According…
melissa_boiko
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