Tofugu - Latest Comments in Ways to say です (desu)

Re: Ways to say です (desu)

Jacob Hansen — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 20:46:36 -0000

the reason desu, sounds like des, is because of something extremely common in japanese (and pretty much every other language on earth) called devoicing, in it's most basic forms it's putting more emphasis on the consonant and little to no emphasis on the vowel. It's hard to hear but the "u" sound is there.

Re: Ways to say です (desu)

donkan — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 11:29:52 -0000

don't think like that. it's just like you say "doumo arigatou gozaimashita" when you want to be overly polite ;)

Re: Ways to say です (desu)

drayomi — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 15:14:03 -0000

You cannot use だ in a question because it makes an assertion.
Although です and だ are present tense, and polite and causal, respectively, です is not a polite equivalent of だ. だ is used to make assertions, whereas です is not; だ can be used in sentence fragments, whereas です can only be used at the end of a sentences or in direct quotes; and だ cannot be used in questions, whereas ですcan.You can only use だ at the end of sentences and sentence fragments which end in な-adjectives, nouns, or sentences and sentence fragments which end in explanatory の or ん. You can use です only in sentences which end in な-adjectives, nouns, or sentences which end in the explanatory の or ん. You can only use です in these cases, and only in these cases can you replace です with だ, with the exception that です can be used in these cases if the sentences are questions, whereas だ cannot.

Re: Ways to say です (desu)

Annie Öhlén — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 13:32:42 -0000

Gozaimashita is past time and gozaimasu is present time.

Re: Ways to say です (desu)

Tyler — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 18:01:32 -0000

IT"S DES PEOPLE!
(How do u rit in Jap on dis site)

Re: Ways to say です (desu)

Tyler — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 13:46:41 -0000

Isn't desu said like "des"? (Like most common)

Re: Ways to say です (desu)

vaq — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 03:47:22 -0000

someone said it would sound weird to use だ in a question, which i gues kinda does sound weird if you use か as a question ender (to me too i guess) but if u end the question without an actual question marker i think it would sound normal like in "誰だ?" or also i think it sounds ok to say it with question ender かい like in どこだかい but then again im not very advanced in japanese so I dont really know. anyone know for sure?

Re: Ways to say です (desu)

JohtoKen — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 23:31:36 -0000

When you want to make it frustrating to bring an anime overseas = であります。

Why do I say this? Try translating the episode titles of ケロロ軍曹 into English without leaving in the であります in the title.

Re: Ways to say です (desu)

Casey — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 00:09:33 -0000

Hmm, I've never payed attention to the speech patterns in Samurai Champloo, but I know that in Rurouni Kenshin, the main character uses de gozaru. What I'm trying to say is, I'm going to substitute Kenshin where you said Champloo and live a happier life without anoying anyone.... or something like that.... It's late....

I love you :)

Re: Ways to say です (desu)

self-confessed otaku~ — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 19:06:47 -0000

~if you can say "degozaimasu", could you possibly say "degozaimashita" (being overly polite or whatever...)
i was just wondering since i've heard arigatou gozaimashita being used before. :|

Re: Ways to say です (desu)

Sam — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 02:44:54 -0000

うあぁ、一つ忘れてんやろう？

Don't forget や！ Yay kansai-ben!

Re: Ways to say です (desu)

eugene — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 11:18:37 -0000

I wouldn't say that じゃない is the opposite of です ,
is で as in both です, である and other words some kind of a root for the verb "to be/exist/is" ? making ではない a negation

I don't know.

Re: Ways to say です (desu)

Loretta / 毛虫 — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 15:32:52 -0000

;) 'である' sounds so weird and sterile because its a written term. Used in more formal writings like essays, business documents, newspapers, etc. :)

Re: Ways to say です (desu)

Sexy Beam — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 00:01:59 -0000

I suppose, in really thinking of it, that だ isn't really entirely the same, since you can't use it in a question, but maybe that's just me.

Another one I see sometimes is である - which is pretty sterile sounding, used in really official news-type stuff. It would sound kind of odd to say this on any sort of regular basis.

It also is okay in casual speech to not use any form at all, but that seems to be a little bit feminine. Fun with gender diffences!

And in Suiseiseki speech, you should end sentences with desu frequently, even if grammatically incorrect desu!

Just as much fun is the opposite, though. Ways to say じゃない (janai). ^_^