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I was told how an older non-native lady would say "it's okay!" and that it was perceived to be just like that person and cute many because it was grammatically incorrect. She would say, いいだよ

Now I didn't know that rule but I was sure I had heard いいだよ before. It is such a simple statement but even these things trip me up.

So I'm guessing the rule is like 

だ after な-adjectives, nouns
No だ after い-adjectives

Can I get something definitive on this please? What about adverbs?

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  • 5
    Are you sure it's wasn't いいんだよ and you just couldn't hear the ん clearly?
    – istrasci
    Commented Sep 15, 2011 at 16:42
  • I don't understand what you mean. いい is an い-adjective, so you expect no だ according to your rule, but you are citing an example that has だ.
    – user458
    Commented Sep 15, 2011 at 17:10
  • @istrasci That might be one possibility, but the OP might be referring to the kind of speech used by a fictional old lady character acted by 志村けん。
    – user458
    Commented Sep 15, 2011 at 17:12
  • The old lady is a lady I know. The example I cited was from what I thought I heard, and as istrasci asked, I might not have heard it correctly and just stored that in my brain rule book incorrectly. As for the cultural reference, I don't know about 志村けん. The point of the question was to nail down the rule.
    – Gerard Sexton
    Commented Sep 16, 2011 at 9:20
  • @istrasci please add your suggestion as an answer so i can mark it.
    – Gerard Sexton
    Commented Sep 28, 2011 at 13:22

2 Answers 2

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Are you sure it's wasn't いいんだよ and you just couldn't hear the ん clearly?

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  • ... Haha, OK. I appreciate receiving the answer, but feel like this simple response doesn't warrant it.
    – istrasci
    Commented Sep 29, 2011 at 15:34
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There are regions where "いいだよ" gets said (http://www.geocities.co.jp/Technopolis/1775/mikawa.html), but it's not standard 標準語　Japanese. With adverbs, it probably depends. I don't think you could say "すぐにだ”, but "ときどきだ" sounds OK.

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  • "standard 標準語 Japanese" = redundant. Just sayin'.
    – istrasci
    Commented Sep 15, 2011 at 18:06
  • 4
    そうだ。だって、いいだよ。(笑)
    – rdb
    Commented Sep 15, 2011 at 18:49
  • 2
    I heard "いいだ" a lot in Akita prefecture.
    – Axioplase
    Commented Sep 16, 2011 at 0:18

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