Structure
Noun + である
［な］Adjective + である
Details
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Formal
About である
である (or であります) is a construction in Japanese that is considered to be the formal equivalent of だ. This should not be confused with the polite speech word です, as である is simply a combination of the conjunctive form of だ, and the う - Verb, ある.
である may be used in any place that だ would usually be used, but is most likely to be found at the end of sentences/statements.
Fun Fact
Because the な that is used with な-Adjectives is simply the attributive form of だ, である may replace な or の when connecting one noun to another. The attributive form just means the form of a word that can be directly linked to a noun. As ある's attributive form is just ある, it does not need to be modifed at all.
- 大変であることを人にやらせるのは良くない。It is not good to make someone else do difficult things.
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重要である箇所をまとめた資料がこちらです。These are the documents highlighting all the important sections.
However, although this is grammatically correct, it would sound quite stiff in many circumstances, and should be avoided in standard speech.
Caution
であります (as opposed to である) is very formal, and will almost exclusively be used by people within jobs that absolutely require this level of formality (politics, police force, military, etc). Due to this, its use within regular conversation will sound stiff, or perhaps even like the speaker is jokingly being over polite.
- 名前はタナカであります！My name is Tanaka! (Responding to a person in a higher rank in a military)
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最後のプリンを食べたのは私であります。I am the one who ate the last pudding. (Jokingly polite)
Synonyms
Examples
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彼はとてもハンサムである。
He is very handsome.
彼はパイロットであった。
He was a pilot.
とても面白いドラマである。
It is a very interesting drama.
題名：「吾輩は猫である。」
Title: 'I am a cat.'
夢は海外で成功することである。
My dream is to be successful overseas.
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である – Grammar Discussion
Most Recent Replies (7 in total)
CrisH
I was fairly sure it asked for the polite version - I would double-check (is that what you’ve done?), but I don’t think we end-users can see the hints for each question anywhere unless we’re currently answering the questions. Is that right?
I know I do sometimes mix up formal with polite, so that probably is it. I just wanted to confirm.
Pushindawood
Yes, I made sure when you made your comment that the hint displayed was “[formal・literature・past]." Cheers!
steffuld
で御座います should be a synonym too!
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