なんだ

[kuritiusu]

How do you translate the なんだ in the following sentences?

It's over 今なんだよ 何かを始める時なんだよ
So lonely 心細くても やりきれない夜を超えて

[GaijinPunch]

I maybe blind, but I only see it in the first sentence. Anyways, it's gramatically similar to 今ですよ　or 今だよ.

[kuritiusu]

The second sentence was just for context.

[nhk9]

ima nanda yo is equivalent to "ima na no da", with the "no" becoming "n" in colloquial speech. "no da" is just an emphasis on something.

kore wa ringo da = "this is an apple"
kore wa ringo na no da = "this IS an apple"... (I am fairly confident that this is indeed an apple)

Notice that sometimes "no da" can be translated as "indeed"... but not very commonly translated that way. Most of the time it is just not translated.

[McCrutch67]

What's the な for then? If the のだ is for emphasis and abbreviated as んだ then there's still a な left that I don't understand.

[nhk9]

な is essentially "da", the copula. The "da" is usually changed to na, when something follows the copula. な can be considered the colloquial equivalent of the renkai-kei de-aru form (however, the usages for "な" and de-aru are not necessarily the same, but guess that's for another discussion)

Anyway, here are some examples
atashi ha gakusei na no-de, gakkou ni ikanakeryanaranu (Because I am a student, i must go to school)
Note that "atashi ha gakusei da no-de" would be technically grammatically correct, but in modern Japanese, da would always be changed to な

kare ga chikan nandakara (formal: na no dakara), saketa hou ga ii. (It is because he is a molester, avoiding (him) is better)

Note that na is usually before things like "no-de" and "no-da", where as "da" is followed by "kara" or "kedo"... A little memorization is needed to remember which goes before which, but shouldn't be too difficult.


Just to clarify... if you want to say "because he is a molester", just using "dakara" would suffice. However, if you want to say "IT IS because that he is a molester", then probably "nandakara" would be more appropriate.

[McCrutch67]

Thank you that was very helpful! (I'd say arigatou but I'm at school right now so japanese isn't really easy to do now, heh)

So nande and nanda can be "na no de" or "na no da" with the "na" really meaning "da?" I also get confused with t sounds after the "nan-" I forget if that happens really I don't know. Are there constructions like that or what? Just to make sure I don't get too confused.

EDIT: I heard a "nande" at the beginning of a sentence recently so the "na" can't be "da" can it? I don't remember where it was to find how exactly it was used(or to confirm that that's actually what I heard, heh) but what does that mean, do you think? Is it probably from context or is this some other expression?

EDIT 2:
Heh, I need to remember to look things up first....
(
何で 【なんで】 (adv) Why?, What for?, (P)
)

[nhk9]

"nande" is not the contraction for "na no de" (because), rather, it is a contraction for "na no desu" (de is the -te form of desu)

"nande" can also mean "naze", which is exactly the same meaning as "why". "nande" becomes "why" only when placed at the beginning of the sentence.

ex. "nande gakkou ni ikanakatta?"
Why didn't you go to school?

There is also "nante", which sounds similar to "nande". Although they sound similar, the meanings are quite different. Nante is a little bit more advanced, but is often used in colloquial speech.

1) Nante utsukushii!
How beautiful! (used as an exclamation)

2) Nante can also mean "nado", or "things like"
yuuki nante moteba, nan demo dekiru (If you hold things like courage, anything is possible)

3) Nante can also mean "nado to ", and is used when quoting the phrases of someone else.
"arukinagara taberu nante mitto-monai wa. yamenasai" nante (itte) haha ni shikararechatta
I was scolded by my mother, with her saying that "it's indecent to eat while walking. Quit it!".
(Note that the first nante means "nado", and the second nante means "nado to".

There are also many other uses of nante, and some are quite advanced, so I don't want to get into all the grammatical details for now.

[McCrutch67]

Very interesting. Those things always seem to get me mixed up like mada and mata always got me, mada is like mou and mata is again?.....[checking]...yes! Thank you for sharing that.