TextFugu » Topic: だ and です

だ and です

Marie Seaman — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 23:47:37 +0000

So yes they both ‘mean’, it is。But, is だ　the informal form of です？ Also, it is said that だ is only used with a noun and な-adjective. Does the same go with です, or does です work with nouns,な-adjectives AND い-adjectives? Sorry for such a simple question ^^;

Reply To: だ and です

Mon, 06 Jun 2011 00:08:17 +0000

You can “call” it the informal version but they’re quite different. だ implies you believe something is true, so you can never use か　to ask a question with だ, since it makes no sense to be asking what you just stated you believed was true. です works with everything. When using だ with な-adjectives you have to drop the な.

その車の社内はきれいな。－＞　きれいだ。

Reply To: だ and です

Marie Seaman — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 02:56:46 +0000

分かります。ありがとう！

Reply To: だ and です

Swoosherz — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 03:59:56 +0000

In addition to that, 「だ」is integral to a lot of grammar formations that cannot be interchanged with 「です」. So, marking them as “formal” and “informal” is really not the right way to go about learning them. In the beginning it’s fine to label them as such, but once you start to get further you’ll start to realize that they really are, as Crumb said, completely different.

Reply To: だ and です

Sheepy — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 14:37:42 +0000

@Marie: Also in this case, 分かりました! is much more natural.