Entries

I don't think it's indicating a question; it's more of an abbreviation of ですか. (We 
wouldn't split an entry like this.)

I might be wrong but is だ sometimes used to indicate a question？ see  phrases like だれだ？ どこだ？
I see the argument that these are just examples sense 1, "be, is" but I'm not really sure that's the case.
Not for example how だ can not be followed by か (while verbs, na-adjectives, i-adjectives, nouns, can all come before a "か")
e.g. X だれだか？X どこだか？ 
on the other hand X お前だ？  doesn't work as a question. so if it's a "question particle", it's only with interrogatives.
Btw shouldn't senses 2 & 3 be a separate entry, maybe together with た?

Changing POS as per discussion.

Yes, you are seeing a flaw in WWWJDIC as it can't focus xrefs very well. I should try and work in a way of making them more exact. If I ever get the time....

No change to the above, but when I search for "だった" nothing comes up, save that the following is on display:-

だったら (conj) (See だ・1) if it's the case; (P)

As a passing interest, if I click on "だ" in the above, I get back to the main headword above, which is OK.

As a matter of concern, if I click on "た" [both] in the main entry above, I get referred to:-

誰 【だれ(P); たれ(ok); た(ok)】 (pn,adj-no) who; (P)

[At least, it is a concern if my thinking is that I should have been referred to something which told me about the past tense of verbs.]

If, of course, I search down the page, I do find the following:-

た (aux-v) (1) (だ after certain verb forms) (See だ・2) indicate past completed or action; (2) (See だ・3) indicates light imperative

However, when one clicks a link I think that the link should be the first on display without more searching.

What I am suggesting is that there should be an entry for "だった" with a link to the main entry above.

However, as another point, in the main entry above there is no "[V]" link for conjugating so even if I thought that "だった" may be the past for "だ", I would not get confirmation from that link.

I have seen the comments between yourself and Rene about what is a verb or not, but I don't think I should go there in this context.

Well, having taken your time to read the above, I hope that I am correct about "だった" and my other comments.

Okay.  But I think users may be confused why all verbs use 'to' except for です/だ.  (I'm not really clear on why we'd draw the distinction myself.  GG5, of course, does not use "to ..." for any of its verbs.)

Minor change; removing the "to", which makes it more like the JEs. "to be" sort-of implies it can be conjugated, which I suppose it can in a way. 
I have good friends who are far more learned in Japanese than I will ever be, who will not accept that です or だ are verbs or even copulas (a Latinate grammatical concept.) I think having a translation is better than what was there before.

providing an actual translation

Aligning with 2654250.

Entry created