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３人いるだと！？

Can you say ３人いるだ as a statement? If だと is simply だ + と, I would expect ３人いるんだと.　Is だと considered a particle in its own right, with different rules than だ?

dato

Transcription of the contents of the picture:

A: [何]{なに}がどうなってる!!
    17[区]{く}にも[傷の男]{スカー}!?
     じゃあ　3区のはなんだ!?
B: ダグラス大佐！
     8区にも出ました！
C: ……3人いるだと!?

Pacerier
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Axe
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1 Answers1

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だと！？ at the end of a sentence, e.g. 何だと！？ "say what!?" can indicate shock or disbelief, e.g. "you say there are three people there!?"

Edit: The だと seems to have come from だって. According to Daijisen's last definition:

［終助］《係助詞「だって」の文末用法から》引用句に付く。相手の言葉に対して、非難・驚きの気持ちを込めて強調する意を表す。

[final auxiliary] 《from the binding particle だって's end-of-sentence rules of use》 Attaches to a quotation. Indicates additional emphasis of criticism or surprise in regards to the other person's speech/words.

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cypher
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    Hmm ３人いるだと言いました？／３人いるだといった？are not grammatical... maybe you've heard the phrase 'だって?'/'ですって?', so I think the sentence here can be rephrased as 「『３人いる』だって？」/「『３人いる』ですって？」-- The difference is that「『３人いる』だと？」sounds masculine. (Can this be any help?) –  May 30 '12 at 22:45
  • @Chocolate ah, indeed - one of the entries at Space ALC says 何だって？／何ですって？／何だと！／えーっ！. Would you say that 何だと！？ is masculine though? I think I've seen girls saying it on online forums. – cypher May 30 '12 at 23:09
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    @Chocolate, is it grammatical if the ３人いるだ is treated as a quote? = "３人いるだ"と言いましたの？=Did you say it was three people? – yadokari May 30 '12 at 23:42
  • That だと came from だって does not mean they are interchangeable. – fefe May 31 '12 at 03:07
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    @cypher-san, Yes, I think "~~だと？" sounds quite masculine... I wouldn't use that form in daily conversation, nor would any of my female friends do. (Maybe we would use it when we quarrel with our family or very close friends and get veery angry.)(Ah and we'd use it jokingly too.) 何ですって？sounds feminine and polite, so I think we (females) would use 何て？/３人いるって？instead in normal conversation. –  May 31 '12 at 07:11
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    @yadokari-san, No, the quote would be "３人いる". I'd say 「"３人いる"と言いましたか？」/「"３人いる"って言いましたか？」「"３人いる"と(orって)言ったの(orん)ですか？」. (３人いるだと言いましたか/３人いるだって言いましたか sound awkward.) ---By the way, we say 「３人いるって言ったの？」 but not 「３人いるって言いましたの？」. Curious, we can say 言ったの, but we don't use the "の" with ました(the polite form) here, おっしゃいましたの？ sounds fine though... –  May 31 '12 at 07:35
  • @Chocolate Ah, thanks! I did some searching (it was a fairly long time ago) but found out it was actually なんと！ which might be different again. – cypher May 31 '12 at 08:05
  • @Chocolate Btw is 「３人いる」。だと言った！？ considered grammatical? If so, is it possible that ３人いるだと！？ is a shortened version of it? – Pacerier May 31 '12 at 18:39
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    @Paceriersan-- 「『三人いる』だと言った？」sounds awkward and I think it's ungrammatical... According to cyper-san's answer, だと is a 終助詞, so I think this is why it can't be followed by verbs such as 言う/思う/話す etc. –  Jun 02 '12 at 05:41