According to "Tae Kim's Grammar Guide," a question cannot end in the declarative だ, which would seem to make sense. However I faintly remember hearing sentences such as '何をするんだ？' while watching anime. Of course 'da ka' is incorrect, but can you not create a question ending in だ with simply a questioning tone?

Thank you.

何がするの。

That should be を, not が.

Questions can end in だ but it's very blunt/rude and mostly shows up in anime/tv stuff. It's not something you probably ever need to do in real life. I'm not sure they ever have the question intonation, though.

bottom point being, however tempting it might be, dont learn from anime.. at least thats what i keep saying to myself...

I don't see questions ending in だ a lot. But I do see a lot of だな.

For example.

彼の友達は静かだな
His friend is quiet
*With a extra bump

mrbryce Wrote:bottom point being, however tempting it might be, dont learn from anime.. at least thats what i keep saying to myself...

There's nothing fundamentally wrong with learning from anime, just be aware of the situation you're watching.

The things that people say to their squad/gang/crew in a heated situation, and definitely the things that they say to their opponents just before they fight .... are probably not suitable for everyday conversation. And in general, the broad-shouldered guy carrying weapons down the street and awing everyone -- you probably shouldn't talk like him, because he's probably talking like he's superior to everyone.

There's lots of normal conversation and normal vocabulary in anime, though, especially slice-of-life type anime. The language on the news and in doramas isn't any more natural than that in anime.

I've definitely heard 何するんだよ type 'questions' in police procedural doramas.
I wonder if 'question' is the right thing to call it, I think it's more a demand for an explanation (or a demand that the action be stopped, depending on the context).
It reminds me of the command んだ, maybe because the verb applies to the listener in both cases.

mrbryce Wrote:bottom point being, however tempting it might be, dont learn from anime.. at least thats what i keep saying to myself...

What's wrong with learning from anime? You can hear/read questions ending in だ outside the realms of anime & movies. Try going to a Japanese forum, listening to a Japanese podcast, or hanging out with some Japanese people...?

I myself don't like learning from anime because the one's I like to watch seems to enjoy mixing some Okinawa and Hiroshima dialect. Probably some more.

kaizer Wrote:

mrbryce Wrote:bottom point being, however tempting it might be, dont learn from anime.. at least thats what i keep saying to myself...

What's wrong with learning from anime? You can hear/read questions ending in だ outside the realms of anime & movies. Try going to a Japanese forum, listening to a Japanese podcast, or hanging out with some Japanese people...?

I've hung out with a lot of Japanese people and never heard anyone ask a question with だ. It may be something that younger people use, if it is in fact used in real life?

（だな is common but that's not a question, it's just a rhetorical statement like ね.)

[s0apgun]

mrbryce Wrote:bottom point being, however tempting it might be, dont learn from anime.. at least thats what i keep saying to myself...

There is nothing wrong with learning from anime. I encourage it because you can also read the manga in tandem.

yudantaiteki Wrote:

kaizer Wrote:

mrbryce Wrote:bottom point being, however tempting it might be, dont learn from anime.. at least thats what i keep saying to myself...

What's wrong with learning from anime? You can hear/read questions ending in だ outside the realms of anime & movies. Try going to a Japanese forum, listening to a Japanese podcast, or hanging out with some Japanese people...?

I've hung out with a lot of Japanese people and never heard anyone ask a question with だ. It may be something that younger people use, if it is in fact used in real life?

（だな is common but that's not a question, it's just a rhetorical statement like ね.)

Interesting... It could be the age differences, I've heard 何やってんだ　＆　何しってんだ being used by people my age and younger.

It is actually considered rude though? I never thought of it that way - then again, I probably wouldn't say it to some one much older than me.

Rudeness in Japanese is usually about who you're talking to. I think these sorts of questions are pretty high on the "blunt" side of the blunt/gentle scale, which would make them rude in a lot of situations, but fine in some.

yudantaiteki Wrote:I've hung out with a lot of Japanese people and never heard anyone ask a question with だ. It may be something that younger people use, if it is in fact used in real life?

I've heard it once when two Japanese were fighting, but the quarrel occurred in the U.S. They were screaming, throwing things, and one even punched through his bedroom door in rage.

Other than that, only on TV. I've never heard anyone besides foreigners use it as a joke, but it at least seems possible that Japanese may use it in a joking way too.

Actually now that I think of it, I have heard 何やってんだ in a joking manner, but I don't remember if that was from a native speaker or foreigner.

I just asked the Japanese person next to me, and this is what she said:

何してるんだ？ = "What the eff are you doing?"

It's male speech, often used when the speaker is angry.

When I was wwooffing in Azumino-shi(nearby matsumoto) I was told this was local dialect of the town/city. Children(young and old) seemed to use it allot, even when they are not angry. So there is a change it is also part of other dialects. Besides the"use it when they are angry "part

.

Agree with the above poster. I remember being discouraged by text books not to use the な negative command form, but it seems (as the above poster says), if you use a different intonation, it doesn't sound as rude.

kaizer Wrote:Agree with the above poster. I remember being discouraged by text books not to use the な negative command form, but it seems (as the above poster says), if you use a different intonation, it doesn't sound as rude.

You should hear how sweetly I can say "What the eff are you doing?" in English. Hardly sounds rude at all.

You shouldn't forget the difficulty doing this as a non-native speaker -- it's not only about the context of the situation but also your intonation and voice. (I'm not saying you should absolutely never try it but you do need to be careful.)

JapaneseRuleOf7 Wrote:I just asked the Japanese person next to me, and this is what she said:

何してるんだ？ = "What the eff are you doing?"

It's male speech, often used when the speaker is angry.

Is that so?

It seems there's been a lot of debate about this here. Perhaps I'll ask on Lang-8 to see if I can get a few answers from more natives. I wonder if it has to do with different dialects, too, but I don't know much about that.

JapaneseRuleOf7 Wrote:

kaizer Wrote:Agree with the above poster. I remember being discouraged by text books not to use the な negative command form, but it seems (as the above poster says), if you use a different intonation, it doesn't sound as rude.

You should hear how sweetly I can say "What the eff are you doing?" in English. Hardly sounds rude at all.

I disagree. I've certainly never heard anybody say "What the eff are you doing?" with a sweet voice.

If you want to say something close to "what the eff are you doing" in Japanese, you can certainly do a lot worse than 何してるんだ？

That phrase in English Implies some sort of contempt for another persons action. I don't think this is the case with 何してるんだ

I can certainly say "What the ***** are you doing?" with the right intonation in the right situation to some of my male friends and it won't be taken as rude or insulting.

yudantaiteki Wrote:I can certainly say "What the ***** are you doing?" with the right intonation in the right situation to some of my male friends and it won't be taken as rude or insulting.

Certainly with male friends you can say that because if you're close it won't be taken seriously. I don't think you can really say it in a friendly tone, though. It sounds harsh either way but if you say it to a friend they'll know it's a joke and you're not actually angry. Besides, comparing Japanese sentences like '何してるんだ?' and 'What the **** are you doing?' doesn't really word since they likely have different usages. Even though cusses are often used with friends harmlessly in English, it can be different in Japanese, so it's hard to compare.

By the way, is 何だ a combination of 何 and だ or is it a separate word in itself? If it is a combination, its pretty much a だ question as it is.

Your question is a little confusing; 何だ in a sentence like それは何だ is a combination of 何 and だ, so it would be an example of this だ question.