Panduan N4
P1: No Need to Be So Formal
No Need to Be So Formal
In this Topic, we are going to learn about two structures we have seen before but in a new way, だが and ですが. Both of these can be translated as ‘but’ or ‘however’, in a similar way to けど or が, except this time we will be using them to start sentences, not end them.
After looking at the grammar points individually, we will examine a few other patterns of the Japanese language in relation to formality.
Tata Bahasa dalam Panduan Ini
だが・ですが
Tetapi, Namun, Meski begitu, Walaupun demikian
だが (atau bentuk sopannya, ですが) sering diklasifikasikan sebagai kata tersendiri, tetapi sebenarnya merupakan gabungan dari だ atau です dengan が. だが biasanya digunakan sebagai cara formal untuk menyatakan 'tetapi' atau 'namun'. Dalam hal ini, だ berfungsi untuk menegaskan bahwa pernyataan sebelumnya benar, sementara が menunjukkan bahwa akan ada informasi tambahan yang mengikuti.
Dengan nuansa seperti itu, だが mirip dengan ungkapan bahasa Indonesia 'memang begitu, tetapi…'. Pola ini dapat digunakan di awal kalimat maupun di antara dua kalimat.
Perhatian
Jika kamu menggunakan ですが, seluruh kalimat setelahnya juga harus tetap menggunakan bahasa sopan.
Untuk membuat だが terdengar sedikit lebih lembut, orang Jepang kadang menambahkan ね. Namun, cara ini jarang digunakan dalam bahasa Jepang modern dan lebih sering muncul di kalangan generasi yang lebih tua.
Fakta Menarik
Karena だが dan ですが menggunakan が (padanan formal dari けど), keduanya terdengar lebih kaku dan formal. Dalam percakapan sehari-hari, orang Jepang jauh lebih sering menggunakan でも di awal kalimat untuk menyampaikan makna yang sama dengan nada yang lebih alami.
Detail
Just like けど, だが and ですが can either be used within a sentence to separate clauses, or at the beginning of a new sentence to indicate a contrastive statement. There are many such grammar patterns in Japanese, but how do we recognize formality and politeness?
In N5 Topics, we discussed how we can separate formality and politeness within Japanese. Often they overlap, but sometimes they don’t. For example, です and ます indicate politness, but vocabulary can indicate a familiar tone even when using polite language. Formality often comes down to word choice, with が ‘but’ being one example of a word that is very often used in formal speech. With this in mind, let’s consider how we can tell how polite and/or formal a sentence is.
Primarily, Japanese exhibits politeness or formality in these parts of a sentence:
The beginning of a sentence - This is usually done via conjunctions.
Between clauses - Again, this is frequently achieved with conjunctions.
Verb conjugations - Like ます, there are many other ways that verbs can be conjugated in order to show politeness.
Particles - Many particles are far more likely to appear in polite sentences than in casual ones.
Let’s look at a few examples of the ones we have seen so far.
As we go along and continue to learn more and more, you will notice that all grammar points are described as formal, standard, polite, and casual. Let’s keep these in mind, as it will help us recognize what type of sentence we are reading, and who is talking to who!