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If I want to say "Tanaka, who is a doctor, drinks cola". Is "Isha da Tanaka wa
koora o nomu" the correct saying or not?
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2016-07-17T06:35:33.150
36718
2016-07-17T08:44:09.827
15891
question
syntax
How to modify nouns which are present affirmative?
It depends on what you're saying, but for something following this pattern,
you would use の, e.g. 医者{いしゃ}の田中{たなか}はコーラを飲{の}む.

You could also use である, which would make for a more "direct" translation:
"医者{いしゃ}である田中{たなか}はコーラを飲{の}む." だ can never be used in the attributive position
since it is only a copula; you must use である instead. Additionally, and this
may be subjective, but I feel that using である puts more emphasis on the
attributive phrase or clause, and the rest of the sentence is something that
depends on it--for example, "Tanaka, being a doctor, drinks cola." This
implies that his being a doctor is important to the fact that he is drinking
cola, which is not true in this case. In other words, you can't really use it
for things that you're "just mentioning" or have no relation to the rest of
your statement (at least, that's how I see it).
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-07-17T08:44:09.827
36723
2016-07-17T08:44:09.827
9596
36718
answer