What is the difference between 悪い and だめ?

Question

What is the difference between 悪い and だめ?

They're not really the same, but in English they both can be translated to "bad".

あの人が悪い。In my limited experience, this is bad in the sense of evil.

あの人がだめだ。This sounds more like hopeless, untrustworthy or unsuccessful. Like someone who will never succeed in life. Like a deadbeat.

So, the question is can the above nuances be generalized to all uses of 悪い and だめ?

Answer 1

I don't think that 駄目 and 悪い are very similar (at least as far as I know), so I've included いけない as I think there is some overlap between the three.

On the end of verbs:

• 行っては駄目/行ってはいけない = "you must not go" (or sometimes translated as "it will be bad if you go")

• (行っては悪い isn't used as far as I know.)

By themselves, plain present as an exclamation:

• 駄目！ = "no!"/"you must not do that!" (or sometimes "it will be bad if you do that!")

• いけない！ = "darn it!"

• 悪い！ = "sorry!"/"my bad!"/"it's my fault!" (thanks to Hyperworm in the comments)

By themselves, plain past:

• 駄目だった = "it was in vain"

• いけなかった/悪かった = "[I was wrong/it was bad for me] (to have done something)"

In describing a person, plain present:

• 彼は駄目だ = "he is good-for-nothing/useless/incompetent/hopeless"

• 彼はいけない = "he is naughty"

• 彼は悪い人だ = "he is a bad person"

• 彼が悪い = "it's his fault"

In describing a person, plain past:

• 彼は駄目だった = "he was good-for-nothing/useless/incompetent/hopeless"

• あの人は小説家としては駄目だった = "That guy was a failure as a novelist"

• 彼がいけなかった/彼が悪かった = "[he was wrong/it was bad for him] (to have done something)"

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In summary, 悪い can mean:

• "bad/evil/horrible/unpleasant" as in 悪い人/悪い奴 "a bad/horrible/wicked person"
• "poor/inferior/bad" as in 質の悪い "poor quality" or 頭が悪い "an inferior intellect"
• "in bad shape" (health-wise) as in 体調が悪い/"bad" as in 体に悪い "bad for you"
• "(someone's) fault"/"(someone being) to blame"/"(someone being) mistaken"

and 駄目 can mean:

• "useless"/"unusable"
• "it's no use" as in "whatever you do, it's not going to make a difference" 何をやっても駄目だ (similar to 無駄{むだ})
• "in vain" as in 駄目だった "it was in vain"
• "hopeless" as in もう駄目 "beyond hope" (similar to もういけない)
• "something which must not be done" as in 駄目！/やっちゃ駄目だよ！ etc

it all depends on the context.

Sources: Space ALC, the Yahoo J-E progressive dictionary, Daijisen.

Note: I hope this will be useful, but it's far from complete and may well contain errors.

Answer 2

Certainly not. In the original meaning of だめ, it means the adjacent empty grids for the survival of a stone piece in the game of go.