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Another thread stated that when expressing agreement, we can choose between 「ね」 and 「な」. 「ね」 is more feminine and 「な」 is more masculine.

By that, would 「そうな」 be the masculine form of 「そうね」 ?

Also, since 「そうだね」 and 「そうですね」 both use 「ね」, are they actually the feminine form of 「そうだな」 and 「そうですな」?

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    How do we answer when the question contains SO MUCH misinformation? Males do say そうだね all the time. そうだね is already highly colloquial. How could there be masculine versions when males already say そうね and そうですね just all the time?
    – user4032
    Nov 21, 2013 at 22:51
  • @TokyoNagoya, Please see the update, thanks.
    – Pacerier
    Nov 21, 2013 at 23:07
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    「そうな」は言わないよね・・・
    – user1016
    Nov 22, 2013 at 13:29

2 Answers 2

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な functions like ね. What is particularly feminine about そうね is primarily the omission of だ, not the use of ね, so just changing ね to な in そうね doesn't make it masculine. You'd need だ to make it sound more masculine.

I'm not sure I understand why you think that そうですな is ungrammatical, so all I can say is that そうですな is in fact grammatical (and not odd either). そうですな is often used and is masculine speech, but carries the nuance of being masculine speech for males over 40, say.

There is a separate question about ですな: What nuance does "ですな" bring?.

Edit. I think one should also point out that ね is not a gendered particle and is used by females and males alike. In a formal context, a male speaker would most likely say そうですね, so it seems you are assuming a false dichotomy: ね is not necessarily feminine (and な is not even decidedly masculine). In informal speech, males may choose to use な instead of ね. So I can't see how it is "right" to say that そうだね is the feminine version of そうだな. Depending on tone & context, a female speaker may use そうだね or そうね or そうなのよね (or indeed something else) to the same effect a male speaker would use そうだな. そうですな isn't just male speech either, so it's hard to say that its "feminine" variant should be そうですね, because そうですね isn't necessarily feminine.

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    Btw, if そうね is grammatical, does that mean that そうな is grammatical?
    – Pacerier
    Nov 21, 2013 at 22:46
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    I think that そうな is as grammatical as そうね, but the omission of だ makes it feminine, the use of な makes it more masculine, so you end up with mixed gender speech that is not used in practice.
    – Earthliŋ
    Nov 21, 2013 at 22:49
  • On a second thought, I think that そうな may in principle be used by people, who can convincingly use it. I wouldn't be surprised if an elderly woman from the countryside used such expression.
    – Earthliŋ
    Nov 21, 2013 at 23:18
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I think there are no much differences between そうだね, そうだな, そうですね and そうね.

To tell the careful thing, そうですね is the polite form, and そうね sounds like (a little bit!) childish.

I don't know no other versions except for dialects.

By the way, そうですな is not wrong, but it sounds funny.

Because if you say so, I feel like you are an elderly gentleman.

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