# Meanings of だって



## divisortheory

gerardovox said:


> nope you want to use it in the same place in the sentence as you would after all. Just remember this is rather spoken than written Japanese. So I changed a few elements of your sentence to reflect the casual spoken Japanese where you might hear it.
> バナナ・リパブリックの代わりに百金へ行く方がいいじゃん。だって、貯金してるんだろう。
> 
> Can't think of a good substitute in written Japanese off the top of my head...


 
Interesting.  I see だって often at the end of a sentence as well.  What does it mean in that case?  One example was このビデオ変だろうだって。  Unfortunately I don't remember any context like previous sentence, etc.

Moderation Note:
This thread has been branched from a discussion about "after all."  The topic of the current thread is だって.


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## gerardovox

divisor: だって has so many different meanings that I suggest you open a new thread. 
Though from your example after all could still work.
_This video is strange don't you think? After all its..._
Only your friend left you hanging there because they just couldn't think of the reason why it was strange. 

I would humbly point out that you may or may not complete 100% of all your sentences in spoken English either.  It happens.


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## notnotchris

divisortheory said:


> Interesting. I see だって often at the end of a sentence as well. What does it mean in that case? One example was このビデオ変だろうだって。 Unfortunately I don't remember any context like previous sentence, etc.


 
When だって (or ですって) comes at the end of a sentence, it means that someone is being quoted.

Ex: "来ないんだって"
"He said he's not coming"

"このビデオ変だろうだって" sounds a bit 変 to me actually...
if it was "このビデオ(が)変だって" the meaning is, "He/she said this video is weird"


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## gerardovox

gerardovox said:


> .......
> だって has so many different meanings that I suggest you open a new thread.....


At the expense of sounding like a real stickler and self-absorbed for quoting myself ....
What say we start a new thread because its possible that someone else might one day be looking for the meaning of だって　and won't think to look under "after all" which is pretty much why they have the "only one Q per thread" rule.

This is my first thread in Japanese but over in English/French  Mods would  be all over this and sending us all reminders about the rules....  and deleting off topic posts...... (hmmm Japanese speaking Mods thin on the ground huh?)
 I think we can safely say that the focus here has moved away from "after all" don't you think.....


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## divisortheory

notnotchris said:


> When だって (or ですって) comes at the end of a sentence, it means that someone is being quoted.
> 
> Ex: "来ないんだって"
> "He said he's not coming"
> 
> "このビデオ変だろうだって" sounds a bit 変 to me actually...
> if it was "このビデオ(が)変だって" the meaning is, "He/she said this video is weird"


 
Yea I was familiar with this usage, but as you mentioned, it sounded a little weird to me too.  The usage you mentioned is actually the copula だ plus the indirect quote marker って, which can also appear after things other than だ.  So it sounded weird in this case because you already have the copula in the form of だろう, then sticking it on again to make だろうだ doesn't really make much sense to me.  So I think it was a different usage of the word, somehow.


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## divisortheory

I did a little research about this topic tonight and I wanted to discuss some of the various things I learned. Please offer any insight.


だって can be used to indicate that a specific instance of a broader category of things is the same as other things in the category.
一年学生だって分かりますよ。

だって can be used to compare multiple items, effectively equating them with each other.
マクドナルドだってKFCだっていいよ。

Can be used to state that anything in a category is OK or valid.
すごくかっこいいので、いくらだって払ってもかまいませんよ。

At the end of a sentence, quoting what someone said with an element of surprise or disagreement.
このビデオ変だろうだって。

I'd like some opinions on each of these. I tried to think of these myself as opposed to using any of the ones in the books I was reading, so I'm not sure if they still sound natural.

Some questions I have:

1) What is the difference if using でも (I think I've also seen さえ here?) Example:一年学生でも分かりますよ。　一年学生さえ分かりますよ。 Is there a different feeling or mood with any of these 3 sentences? When I should prefer だって？

2) How does this compare to マクドナルドとKFCとどちらでもいいよ。 With だって the sentence is much more compact and shorter. So maybe だって is less formal?

3) Same question as #1. How is it different than でも? すごくかっこいいので、いくらでも払ってもかまいませんよ

4) I used the example sentence from earlier here, because it seemed like this may have fit. Maybe he's saying "He said this video is weird... (Is he crazy?!)" Does this sound right?

For each of the 4 usages, if someone could provide an example where only だって sounds natural, and another example where だって does not sound natural, it would be a great help.

よろしくお願いします


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## Flaminius

> 1) What is the difference if using でも (I think I've also seen さえ here?) Example:一年学生でも分かりますよ。　一年学生さえ分かりますよ。 Is there a different feeling or mood with any of these 3 sentences? When I should prefer だって？


In this example, all the three are applicable.  The difference is that of style with a descending order of formality; さえ, でも, だって.



> 2) How does this compare to マクドナルドとKFCとどちらでもいいよ。 With だって the sentence is much more compact and shorter. So maybe だって is less formal?


This どちらでもいいよ construction limits the choice to two alternatives; McDonalds and KFC.  In contrast マクドナルドだってKFCだっていいよ lists the two franchised restaurants as examples of alternatives, which here can be any place to eat as long as it is similar to the two (thus a third choice would be a franchised fast food joint).



> 3) Same question as #1. How is it different than でも? すごくかっこいいので、いくらでも払ってもかまいませんよ


I should like to hear the opinions of other natives but いくらでも払ってもかまいませんよ is grammatically very awkward, if not downright ungrammatical.  The problem in the sentence as I see it is two instances of _-mo_.  Eliminating either one makes the sentence grammatical;
いくら払ってもかまいませんよ OR
いくらでもかまいませんよ.

By the way, さえ cannot be used here.

4. このビデオ変だろうだって
This is really a conversational style.  Usually, quoting someone as saying something is the function of _-tte_.  I am wondering if it was replaced by _datte_ here for the ease of pronunciation.  Gemination after a long vowel is rather hard.  I find myself shortening the vowel and accentuating it whenever I read the sentence.


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## gerardovox

Flaminius said:


> 4. このビデオ変だろうだって
> This is really a conversational style.  Usually, quoting someone as saying something is the function of _-tte_.  I am wondering if it was replaced by _datte_ here for the ease of pronunciation.  Gemination after a long vowel is rather hard.  I find myself shortening the vowel and accentuating it whenever I read the sentence.



That makes more sense to me now too because だろう ＆ だ are both part of the copula verb です　So I was thinking that technically that would be  ungrammatical. Just goes to show that when it comes to conversation, ease of pronunciation trumps grammar every time.


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## divisortheory

Flaminius said:


> This どちらでもいいよ construction limits the choice to two alternatives; McDonalds and KFC. In contrast マクドナルドだってKFCだっていいよ lists the two franchised restaurants as examples of alternatives, which here can be any place to eat as long as it is similar to the two (thus a third choice would be a franchised fast food joint).


 
So in a sense you could say it's similar to the difference between と and や as connective particles?


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## cheshire

Good analogy! Think of the latter as open-ended. The former limits the number of choices.


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## Max.89

こんにちわ皆さん。
日本語のテクストの読みときにだっての言葉ときどき現れっている。
意味は何ですか。
これは僕の第一日本語ポストだからまちがえたらすみません。
ありがとう。


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## fitter.happier

Ciao!

Può voler dire tante cose. Puoi scrivere una frase di esempio?


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## Max.89

Si sapevo che volesse dire tante cose!Se non sbaglio l'ho trovato scritto come una specie di "perchè" per dare spiegazioni.
Provo a fare una frase,ma non so se è giusta.

なぜ行かないか
だって、病気です。

Spesso l'ho vista ad inizio frase.Però sicuramente è usato anche in altri modi.
Qualcuno può fare un elenco degli usi principali?


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## fitter.happier

Può essere usato a inizio frase per dare una spiegazione, sì.

A: なぜ行かないの？

B: だって病気なんだもの。 / だって病気なんだもん。

P.s. mi sono appena accorto che esiste un thread uguale...


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## kenjoluma

「だって、病気です」の意味は

「先の質問」…だって（誰かが）尋ねると、病気だと言える

です。


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