I'm an absolute Japanese learning beginner. I came across this confusing sentence while I was reading a grammar guide book. Please help me : 飲むんだ。 I understand that の is substituted by ん as we speak, but I'm not sure what's the exact meaning of the whole sentence. "I drunk" or is it only an adjective and if so, what does it mean ?
2 Answers
「[飲]{の}むんだ。」
Unless the context proved otherwise, that would be a request/order. It would be masculine speech nearly 100% of the time.
"Drink it up!"
The "other" main usage of 「～～のだ/んだ」 is when you explain (rather assertively) the reason or cause for something.
「飲まないと[眠]{ねむ}れないから飲むんだ！」
=
"I drink (alcohol) because I couldn't sleep if I didn't drink!"
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Thanks, so if we translate word by word, that would be : The thing （ん） is （だ）that let's drink （飲む）, right ?– NDTMay 27, 2016 at 13:02
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1Word-for-word translation is difficult here. I recommend that you memorize the two usages as if 「のだ/んだ」 were a set phrase or sentence-ender.– user4032May 27, 2016 at 13:37
I just replied today to a question that I believe might concern the same topic you are being confused by (since you don't give much context is a bit hard to say for sure).
Anyway, if I'm correct it might be an interesting reading:
I drunk-> Sorry but I don't really understand, did you mean to type "I drank" or "I drink" ?