だって and んだって reorganization suggestion

Bunpro
#1

Just giving a bit of feedback / a suggestion now that I’m going back through some N3 stuff :slight_smile:

So there’s these two grammar points: だって and んだって. But んだって (which is used for hearsay) is covered in the だって explanation, and だって includes some of those んだって hearsay sentences.

んだって explanation on だって page:

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Example of an SRS sentence from だって page that has to do with hearsay:

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Since んだって already is its own grammar point in Bunpro, wouldn’t it make more sense for だって to not include that info and instead focus on the だって that appears at the beginning of sentences/after nouns? Maybe have a quick explanation in a Caution section, but not have sentences in the SRS for it.

I think otherwise there’s just too much information on the だって grammar point, especially since we already have a separate grammar point for using だって for hearsay. Or maybe I’m the only one who thinks this?

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#2

Thing is, the more Japanese grammar you learn the more you start to realize how many grammar points either use the same word with slight variations and different meaning (i.e. grammar points that use the word ところ), or different grammar points that sound completely different but are similar to each other (i.e. そう、らしい、とか).

I think it’s just inevitable that you will encounter these grammar structures that are confusing due to how similar they are (even though there are nuances behind them). That said, I’m all for making them as easy to understand as possible. I’m just not sure how this can be achieved without possibly making things more complicated. Thankfully I’m not in the BunPro development team :sweat_smile:.

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#3

I agree with you, but this isn’t quite what I was saying. I know it’s the same だって, but since they already have a seperate grammar point specifically for that usage, I don’t see why they still have reviews for that usage with the main だって grammar point. idk, I’m probably being too nitpicky :sweat_smile:

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#4

OK, I misread your point, but now I understand what you mean. My bad!

I guess there’s two ways to go about it. Your way, which makes complete sense. Or getting rid of んだって since its function is already explained in だって. Personally I prefer the former. Good call!

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#5

Hi @meagstudies, thanks for sending in your suggestion, and I hope you’re enjoying the N3 content so far! The だって family of grammar points is a tricky one, as different resources split them in different ways, sometimes in up to 4 different grammar points :flushed:. Initially when writing the explanation for だって, we decided that it was the most general, so covering most of the meanings would be beneficial (なんで～だって、だって～もの、んだって、Noun + だって).

However, looking back on it, I think you are definitely right that there are too many examples of the quotation usage, especially when that has its own grammar point later on. I will get a few of these examples changed so that they include more of the other uses!

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