Japanese Grammar In Its Natural Habitat
Wild Nihongo!
~だす

~だす

~だす Japanese Grammar Lesson

Grammar Type: Auxiliary Verb (Group 1)

Essential Meaning: Begin to / Start to / X out

Construction: 

  • Verb ます-Form + 出だす
    • E.g. 話はなし出だす [Begin to speak]
    • E.g. 食たべ出だす [Begin to eat]

Notes:

  • ~だす (~出だす in kanji) has two interpretations depending on the speaker’s intent:
    • (1) ~出だす can indicate an abrupt, non-volitional beginning of some action. The action is interpreted as spontaneous or abrupt and is not brought about by the subject’s volition.
      • E.g. 急きゅうに雨あめが降ふり出だした。[It suddenly started to rain.]
      • E.g. 一歳いっさいになって初はじめて歩あるき出だした。[When he turned one, he suddenly began to walk.]
    • (2) ~出だす can also mean “X out“, as in “Jump out” or “Find out“. In this case, the action may be brought about by the speaker’s volition.
      • E.g. 一時間いちじかんぐらいかけてとうとうその本屋ほんやを探さがし出だした。[After searching for an hour, I finally found out the location of that bookstore.]
      • E.g. そのアイディアは誰だれが考かんがえ出だしたんですか。[Who thought out that idea?]
  • ~出だす conjugates as a Group 1 verb (i.e. 出だす、出ださない、出だします, et cetera.)
  • The auxiliary verbs ~出だす and ~はじめる are quite similar. The difference is that ~出だす emphasizes spontaneity, abruptness, and non-volitionality, while ~はじめる is used more generally to express the start of some action.
    • E.g. バスが動うごき出だした。[The bus abruptly began to move.] ~出だす indicates that the movement of the bus was abrupt and that the speaker did not cause the bus to move.
    • E.g. バスが動うごきはじめた。[The bus began to move.] ~はじめる merely indicates that the bus began to move, but does not provide context about who caused the bus to move or in what fashion the bus began to move.
    • E.g. そろそろ歩あるきはじめましょう。[Well then, shall we start walking?] This is a volitional sentence, so ~出だす would be inappropriate in this case.
    • E.g. 私わたしたちが歩あるきはじめた時とき山田やまだが来きた。[When we started to walk, Yamada came.] This sentence expresses an abrupt and non-volitional action, so either ~はじめる or ~出だす would work.

Example Sentences:

車くるまが動うごきき出だした。[The car began to move.]

児童じどうの飛とび出だしに注意ちゅうい。[Beware of children jumping out (onto the road).]

WILD Examples:

At 1:27, listen for this line: 雲くもが踊おどればかぜが歌うたい出だす。[If the clouds dance, the wind will begin to sing.]
At 0:20, this line occurs: 思おもい出だす、春はるの日ひ、一人ひとりぼっちの夜よる　[I remember those spring days on this lonely evening] The context of 思い出す is that the memories pop into the singer’s mind non-volitionally.
At 0:30, listen for this lyric: 天気てんきがいい日ひだよん, 自転車じてんしゃを漕こぎ出だすよん [It’s a fine day, I begin peddling my bike]
Listen to this line at 2:07: ありのままで飛とび出だしてみるの [As my true self, I will try jumping out into the world]

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