sorry if my English is bad but neither English nor Japanese is my language. i'm new to Japanese too. I have a question that i hope you will answer it. "赤ちゃんだんごはいつも幸せの中で" This is from a song named "だんご大家族”。i wonder will the sentence changes if i remove the element "で”？ And what is it doing here exactly? Thank everyone.
2 Answers
Judging from the whole lyrics, this で is simply the te-form of the copula だ. It's working like "and" or "(and) so". It's connecting the two clauses (mini-sentences), "赤ちゃんだんごはいつも幸せの中だ" and "年寄りだんごは目を細めてる". The first clause can often be the reason for the second clause (see: te-form (て-form) for Cause or Reason).
I think it is leaving off a verb, such as [生]{い}きる. If so, I would read the sentence as "The baby Dango is always (...) in happiness" where the (...) can be left out. If you remove the で, the sentence becomes more unfinished. It's like, "The baby Dango is always (...) happiness." I think that is more confusing. It may be similar meaning if you replace the で with に however. This is my level of understanding, but please correct me if I am wrong.
