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I was reading some online articles about Japenese Grammar and one of it's examples were:
静かな人 meaning the quiet person
Although while I was reflectling about this phrase I was wondering if I could use だ in this exact same phrase. For example, let's suppose I'm talking about Erickさん, can I say:
Erickさんは静かな人だ and in it's polite form Erickさんは静かな人です
Yes, everything you just posted works without problems. Hopefully this will clear things up.
When you say 静かだ you are literally saying is quiet in English. The same can be said of い adjectives. Ending a sentence with 大きい really just says is big. With adjectives, the to be verb is already built in. With い adjectives saying です after the adjective, while grammatically correct is not always necessary. You would add です to be polite to the listener.
When you attach the adjective to a noun, 静かな人 you no longer have the to be verb as a closer. In fact, in these situations, you can safely assume that there is no verb, and that the adjective + noun form a noun clause. In short, you need a verb, and だ/です will work for you. The same will apply to い adjectives as well.
