Is "da" used often in the casual speech? Or is it often omitted whenever it's possible? For example:
1) Genki (da)?
2) Suki (da)?
3) Ke wa atsui (da) ne?
2 Answers
It is difficult to give a precise answer to this question. In cases where the speaker has a choice between "da" and just ending the sentence, both have their own nuances. Omission may be more "feminine" and addition of da might be more "masculine". In some cases, da can be used for emphasis. Usage patterns vary by gender, age, social situation, and possibly by region/dialect as well.
There are many other casual sentence enders besides just "da"/"" (nothing). You'll also hear stuff like "genki na no?" -> "genki da yo". There's also "kai" and "dai" for questions, "wa", "jya" and many others. In fact, sometimes personal choice of sentence enders is used to "project" a certain "personality type". It is something you develop an "ear for" the more you speak to a variety of people.
Note that there are grammatical limitations, however. For example, as per Yuuichi Tam's comment, you wouldn't use "da" as a question end. For a question, you can replace "da" with "ka" (but this can sound sharp or rude in some cases, so be careful) eg "genki ka?", or just end the sentence with rising intonation "genki?". There's also other question forms like "___ (na) no (ka)?" eg "genki na no?" but that's a more advanced topic.
About the example sentences:
As statements, all three would be okay with da or without. As questions, the first two are wrong if you use "da". The third one sounds weird to me but is close.. if you said something like "atsui da yo ne?" that would probably be okay, but that's because it is more like a statement followed by a request for confirmation: "atsui da yo" (statement) + "ne?" (question)
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2I think I was reading somewhere that だ and です actually have somewhat divergent different etymologies, despite the similar appearance. Actually, some interesting posts about it on this stack, see: japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/12373/… and japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/11074/…. Jun 13, 2016 at 18:04
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1@Oskar K. "元気だ" is an afirmative form to say "I'm (he / she is) well. Its interrogative form is "元気か？” or ”元気ですか？" "今日は暑いね" isn't an interrogation. It's saying "It's hot today. Isn't it?" It's simply stating the speaker's feeling as a monologue or asking a nod of the person he is speaking to. Jun 13, 2016 at 23:00
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1@Oskar k. You can omit "だ” in coloquial interrogative form as in "元気？””リンゴ好き？"外は暑い？" But it sounds awkward if you add "だ" to these, like "元気だ？””リンゴ好きだ？"外は暑いだ？" Did I take your question rightly? If not, I'll give up answering to your question. Jun 14, 2016 at 7:31
“だ-da” is a colloquial form of a predicate, "です" - used in both written and spoken form and "である" - used mostly in written form.
“だ” also can be replaced with “だよ,” which sounds softer than “だ.” The feminine version of “だよ” is "だわ" and “だわよ” that you often hear from woman speakers.
You say 今日は暑い（ね）, but should never say "今日は暑いだ" and "暑いだね." It’s odd and ungrammatical.
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1Maybe we should point out that feminine speech is minority and not standard.– user4092Jun 14, 2016 at 0:44
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@user4092. You cant say feminine speach which is spoken by 50% of Japanese is a minority's speach. だわ、だよ、だね are equally spoken by women regardless age. Jun 14, 2016 at 2:06
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1現実世界で「わ」（女言葉）を使っているところを聞いたことがあるのは50代の上司くらいでした。たぶんその辺が下限なんじゃないかと個人的には思ってます。 Jun 14, 2016 at 7:28
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1少し変ですね。「お世話」「だめ」には接続しませんよね？「だ」を介してということでしょうか。それに、女性的でない「わ」はたとえ強調しても直前の音節からのピッチの上昇はないはず。– user4092Jun 14, 2016 at 16:05
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Ke wa atsui← What is "ke"? [毛]{け}?