だ vs です – How do you Say Is in Japanese?
The word is is one of the most common words in the English language. So, naturally, if you are learning Japanese, it is natural to want to know the equivalent. So, how do you say is in Japanese?
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How do you Say is in Japanese?
There are basically two ways you can say is in Japanese. They both mean the same thing but they differ in politeness level.
https://japaneseuniverse.com/2024/02/18/pac-man-in-japaneseconcepts-behind-development-to-global-icon/だ
The closest translation for is in Japanese is だ.It pretty much works the same as in English to tell you what something is.
◆ここだ！- here (it) is!
◆鯨は哺乳類だ – Whales are mammals
In English when you are talking about plurals, is becomes are. In Japanese however, だ does not change for plurals. It does change when you are talking about things in the past. Just like is becomes was. The past form of だ in Japanese is だった.
です
Next, we have the polite form of だ which is です. It works the same as だ but you say it when you are being polite or more accurately not being casual.
If you are talking with people you are not close to it is more common to use this form. So, in my opinion, this could be considered the standard way in speech to say is.The social aspects of the Japanese language is an interesting topic but beyond what we can explain here. Just think of です as the politer way of saying だ. Also, just like だ です has a past form which is でした.
Differences between English and Japanese
There are times in English where you say is but in Japanese you would not say だ or です.
There is …
In English, if you want to point something out and say, there it is! You use is. In Japanese, depending on the context you may translate the expression into だ. But, in most situations using the Japanese verb ある would be more accurate. The verb ある means to have or to exist. So, when you want to say that something is somewhere or exists in someplace, you would say ある.
本は棚の上にある
My book is on top of the shelf
Adjectives don’t need だ
In English, if you say the ball is red, you need is. However in Japanese, when using adjectives this way you don’t need to add だ. It would be grammatically incorrect. This is not the case however, with です. Since です is used to show politeness it can be tacked on to the end of an adjective.
ボールは赤い – The ball is red
ボールは赤いです – The ball is red
As you can see above you can use です but not だ.
