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I was told how an older non-native lady would say "it's okay!" and that it was perceived to be just like that person and cute many because it was grammatically incorrect. She would say, いいだよ

Now I didn't know that rule but I was sure I had heard いいだよ before. It is such a simple statement but even these things trip me up.

So I'm guessing the rule is like

だ after な-adjectives, nouns
No だ after い-adjectives 

Can I get something definitive on this please? What about adverbs?

Gerard Sexton
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    Are you sure it's wasn't いいんだよ and you just couldn't hear the ん clearly? – istrasci Sep 15 '11 at 16:42
  • I don't understand what you mean. いい is an い-adjective, so you expect no だ according to your rule, but you are citing an example that has だ. –  Sep 15 '11 at 17:10
  • @istrasci That might be one possibility, but the OP might be referring to the kind of speech used by a fictional old lady character acted by 志村けん。 –  Sep 15 '11 at 17:12
  • The old lady is a lady I know. The example I cited was from what I thought I heard, and as istrasci asked, I might not have heard it correctly and just stored that in my brain rule book incorrectly. As for the cultural reference, I don't know about 志村けん. The point of the question was to nail down the rule. – Gerard Sexton Sep 16 '11 at 09:20
  • @istrasci please add your suggestion as an answer so i can mark it. – Gerard Sexton Sep 28 '11 at 13:22
  • You're the boss... – istrasci Sep 28 '11 at 14:15

2 Answers2

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There are regions where "いいだよ" gets said (http://www.geocities.co.jp/Technopolis/1775/mikawa.html), but it's not standard 標準語 Japanese. With adverbs, it probably depends. I don't think you could say "すぐにだ”, but "ときどきだ" sounds OK.

rdb
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Are you sure it's wasn't いいんだよ and you just couldn't hear the ん clearly?

istrasci
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  • ... Haha, OK. I appreciate receiving the answer, but feel like this simple response doesn't warrant it. – istrasci Sep 29 '11 at 15:34