Exactly. I still don’t know what a copula actually is, but I have been able to handle である just fine. The rules are straightforward enough, that theoretics might only serve to confuse me.
3 Likes
I did call it a nitpick. I dunno, it’s definitely a useful gloss at the very start, but it seems to cause a lot of confusion later on. I don’t know if there’s a better way of teaching it though, so whatever.
1 Like
I personally think it might be best (for the purposes of more advanced grammar) to simply know that it’s similar to ‘to be’ (but definitely not the same), and to just treat it as で+ある without trying to figure out exactly what each component is, aside from the fact that ある continues to be conjugated like a regular verb. である definitely isn’t a monolithic verb because you end up seeing structures like 何でもない later on that make no sense if you treat である as a block. (Plus, I think it isn’t very common for a copula to split like that, at least in European languages, so even calling it a ‘copula’ might be confusing.)
1 Like
な is the 連体形 of both 形容動詞 and the auxiliary verb だ.
Your example 綺麗な人 shows this form for a 形容動詞. For だ it is more limited to なの・なので・なのに according to the grammar source I’m looking at.
https://www.kokugobunpou.com/用言/形容動詞-2-活用/#gsc.tab=0
https://www.kokugobunpou.com/助動詞/だ/#gsc.tab=0
The page on だ seems to say that they have the same root (which is why their conjugations are nearly the same across the board). But I only skimmed it and I don’t know all the terms used on that page, so I may have missed something.
2 Likes
It’s possible, and I didn’t realise that the な-adjectives were also called ダ型活用 (the だ declination). It’s just that what I learnt was that な-adjectives are the modern forms of なる・なり-adjectives, and there are still a few なる adjectives today, like 偉大なる, so I’ve always treated them differently from だ, mostly to help organise things inside my head. (Specifically, I just remembered I needed the な for particular constructions, and treated these adjectives like a regular noun/adjective everywhere else that a common form of である was involved.) However, I’ve also seen a theory that says である is a descendant of なり (にあり→にてあり→であり), so it’s not surprising that they’re similar.
1 Like
Not all of them, though, right? Since modern foreign adjectives (looking at you, English) become な-adjectives in modern Japanese.
You do get old sayings like 時間は金なり or something like that, where なる seems to have fulfilled a similar role as である in modern Japanese.
1 Like
The Wikipedia page on 形容動詞 says the structure came from the idea of creating more adjectives by sticking なり onto nouns. I think English adjectives get the same treatment because they aren’t regular い-adjectives. Still, you have a point.
1 Like
… ⇒ で＋ある ⇒ だ
に＋ある ⇒ なり ⇒ な
I never got なり adjectives until I learnt that.
2 Likes
Informally sure, but grammatically no. I mean, informally you can say 「これは？」and be perfectly understood but it’s not grammatically complete.
The grammatical function is slightly different where な is the adnomial copula and だ is the conclusive copula.
And they’re both considered copulas since neither can stand alone. They have to be preceded by a noun or nominal phrase.
Yeah, I think the etymology isn’t conclusive but close enough for understanding some of the resulting grammar points.
Sure, we just stick -like on the end. 
Everyone here is so helpful. This was a great explanation for me as a beginner. Thank you!
1 Like
You can mark it as a solution, by clicking the tick box under the comment!
1 Like
このような文法で「だ」を使うのは正確だか。 
This is somewhat contrived, and the phrasing is a bit rude but ignoring that the highlighted だ needs to be omitted for the grammar to be correct (typically you drop the か as well though).
There’s nothing grammatically wrong with the sentence. You’ve got a phrase that is nominalized with の and the topic marker は, an implied subject, and a verb or copula at the end with the question marking particle.
It’s identical to:
これは正確だか？
You have to use something after 正確 because a noun can’t end a sentence. The reason it sounds weird is that だ and か used together sound rude and probably because ending a sentence with だか sounds like you mean だから.
But if you drop the だ it’s more of an informal phrase and not grammatical.
All grammatically complete sentences require a subject and a verb, no exceptions. In this case, the subject is implied:
このような文法で「だ」を使うのは (これが) 正確だか
Well that’s not grammatical. You can’t have この immediately followed by は. Did you mean これ?
1 Like
Yeah, I made a mistake. 
fixed
I was trying to match the previous sentence and completely missed that. Cheers 
1 Like
Please fix this one, too! 
1 Like
Thanks guys. @Saida @Belthazar
I’m on the fail train today it seems. 
Also, you don’t want too know how many times I had to correct 正解 to 正確.
2 Likes
So far I’ve only found imabi and japanese with anime (I’m actually impressed with this one as it includes sources, although I can’t read them…) that actually addresses the issue, although I’ve definitely seen it somewhere else.
Additionally, all the examples I’ve seen that end a sentence with か omit だ (e.g. on wiktionary).
1 Like
Yeah I probably should have mentioned that anime is probably the place you’ll hear things like 「大丈夫か」 lol