だい Japanese Grammar Lesson
Grammar Type: Particle
Essential Meaning: Interrogative marker in informal male speech
Construction:
- な-Adjective Stem / Noun + だい
- E.g. どこが静かだい [What place is quiet?]
- な-Adjective Stem / Noun + なんだい / だったんだい
- E.g. どこが静かなんだい [What place is quiet?]
- E.g. だれが先生なんだい [Who is the teacher?]
- (Verb / い-Adjective) informal + んだい
- E.g. だれが話すんだい [Who speaks?]
- E.g. だれが食べるんだい [Who eats?]
- E.g. 何が高いんだい [What is expensive?]
Notes:
- だい is an informal and masculine equivalent to the standard copula + か interrogative marker.
- E.g. これはだれのだい。[Whose is this?]
- E.g. これはだれのですか。[Whose is this?]
- だい can only follow WH-question words such as だれ [Who], なに [What], どこ [Where], or どう [How]. In other words, だい cannot be used with yes-no questions (かい is used for yes-no questions instead).
- だい can also be used in informal male declarative sentences to add emphasis. This usage comes across as boyish.
- E.g. これは僕のだい。[This is mine.]
- E.g. 僕も行くんだい。[I will go too.]
- だい is technically comprised of the copula だ plus the particle い. Due to the grammatical rules surrounding だ, only な-adjectives and nouns can directly precede だい. い-adjectives and verbs must instead be paired with んだい. (な-Adjectives and Nouns can also be used with んだい depending on the speaker’s intent). だい and んだい correspond to だ and のだ respectively.
- Alternatively, informal interrogative sentences may be formed by simply articulating the sentence in the short verb form and with a rising inflection.
- E.g. 誰が行く。[Who is going?]
- E.g. どこが面白い。[Which place is interesting?]
- In past tense questions, だった is typically used with rising inflection rather than だい.
- E.g. Present: tense 新しい仕事はどうだい。[How’s your new job?]
- E.g. Past tense : 新しい仕事はどうだった。[How was your new job?]
Example Sentences:
どの人は先生だい。[Which person is the teacher?]
どの人は先生なんだい。[Which person is the teacher?]
どこが静かだい。 [What place is quiet?]
どこが静かなんだい。[What place is quiet?]
何がおかしいんだい。[What’s funny?]
誰が行くんだい。[Who is going?]
WILD Examples:
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