tsukikage

So,

ellie_desu told me a story about her boyfriend the other day that I had to share with you guys, or at least the ones who understand Japanese. For those who don't, a very short (very simplified) lesson:

"da" in Japanese is a particle that basically means "to be". It comes at the end of a sentence, and also immediately after the item that "is". For example, "Gakusei (student) da." means "You/me/he/she/it is a student." or "They are students." "Mark da." means "You/me/he/she/it is Mark." or "They are Mark."

So, here's the story as Ellie so kindly typed it up for me after our conversation on the phone:

ok, so the da thing...
I'm not sure if it's a tamil thing, or just an indian thing
da doesn't really translate to anything, just a gender neutral term of affection
something akin to sweetheart or honey
so (usually in private conversation, emails, or texts) he'll add 'da' at the end
e.g. "love you, da" or "Ellie da!"
so thus, the japanese in me was "verb?"

I remember on the phone she said once when her boyfriend said "Ellie da!" her internal response was "Yes, I know I'm Ellie..." She also told me that (as could be expected) this bit of da confusion wore off pretty quickly.

Anyways, it amused me, so I had to share.

[EDIT: Ellie wanted me to point out that her explanation of the Tamil/Indian "da" is just what he told her it means, and that she's no expert on it.]