「だ」Declare the state-of-being

「だ」Declare the state-of-being

Is, are, to be

だ​ is used to declare that something is a certain way by attaching it directly to nouns and な-adjectives. だ​ can be translated as is, are, or to be.

Special Note

だ​ is not always necessary to make these kinds of statements. That is, there are some situations where you can express the existence of something without だ​.

In English you might say: There is a dog!. In Japanese you can say: 犬(いぬ)だ​！You could also simply drop the だ​, and say: 犬(いぬ)！to get across more or less the same meaning.

When is だ​ necessary? Adding だ​ makes the statement more forceful and emphatic. Additionally, in some grammar constructions, adding だ​ is required.

Formation