I'm currently reading a Japanese children's book, and a character says 「金色の葉っぱだ」 I'm assuming the 「っぱだ」 is like saying 「たくさん」 or 「いっぱい」, but I don't actually know. Any help is appreciated!
葉{は}っぱ is a word. It means leaf!
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Thanks! The author uses 葉 by itself in a previous sentence, which threw me off. – Tim Nov 15 '12 at 23:57
As snailplane says, for practical purposes, just think of 葉っぱ as a word meaning 'leaf'. In colloquial speech 葉っぱ is probably more common than 葉.
I haven't been able to find decisive evidence, but I conjecture that the っぱs occuring in (at least) the below words
葉っぱ
原っぱ
下っ端
木端微塵{こっぱみじん}
is the same morpheme, meaning "something unimportant", "edge", "small piece" etc. Maybe someone else can confirm this.
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Thanks for clarifying the use of っぱ in this context! Shines some light on the difference in connotation between 葉 and 葉っぱ. – Tim Nov 15 '12 at 23:50
