TAKOBOTO

? (for casual questions)
Who's it?

だれだい。

Who is it ?

なにをこそこそしているんだい。

What are you doing sneaking around ?

いつまでおきているんだい。はやくねなさい！

Why are you still up ? Just go to bed!

そのやさしげなめのおくにあるのはほんとうになにをしりたいんだい

What do you wanna know in your cute eyes?

The equivalent of a question mark. Used mostly in informal male speech. Ungrammatical for questions that can be answered "yes/no" (see also "kai"). Unsuitable for asking a superior a question.

There is a second "dai" at the end of sentences. It is equivalent to a weak exclamation point and is heard in the speech of little boys. "Sore boku no dai." That's mine!

american57

Typical 'standard politeness' question ends in
ですか or Vmますか。(e.g. いますか。Are (you) in?)
Casual questions can omit the ? particle and use
tone. (e.g. 誰だ？ Who is it?)
Alternatively だい and かい can be used.
The plain form with か is quite abrupt and rough.

Amatuka

Need better example ^^v

Amatuka

いつまで起きているんだい。早く寝なさい！
何をこそこそしているんだい。

Miki

I'm watching Tiger & Dragon dorama. And the dorama shows that Edokkos (the owns whose family is from tokyo) use it all the time, even the young ones.

wuerges

I'm not sure about "いつまで起きているんだい 。"
Would that be more like
"When do you think you're staying up till?"
?

Amatuka

No, I don't think so. For example, 君の犬の名前は、なんていうんだい？ What's your dog's name? It doesn't have negative nuance at all.

Miki

I think it appeared in JLPT 3.

lenzras

dai is used at the end of a sentence (well it is a sentence ending particle ;-)

S = Sentence

Amatuka

い is a particle added to the end of sentence for added emphasis and predominantly used by male speaker in an anvironment where politeness to the extent of requiring the use of honorifics is not required.For example an average (note "average")female speaker would not say なんだい but in the equal environment she would say なによ.

bamboo4

I'm not sure of the difference of nuance in English. The situation u use this sentence would be when you scold a child, when you tell a person feeling bad, etc.

Miki

Female would say の instead of だい.
いつまで起きているの。犬の名前は何ていうの。

Miki

Ive been told that dai is only used with question words (なに、どこ、いつ　etc).
If not with a question word then kai is used.
I think only certain regions of Japan use them.

childsnake

I've usually heard old women and men use 'dai' more than anyone.

nazonatte69

I have asked everyone I work with in date and no one has ever heard だい used in this way. where did this come from?

ADDITON:
A have finally heard this grammar point used by a native Japanese person. she is a 70yr+ English teacher. I asked her about it, and she said it might be a word used more often by older people.

darn wipper snappers don`t use it to often.

tigert

I don't think だい as a suffix particle belong to Level 1.

bamboo4

changed it to level2. tho to be honest i havent heard this much..

dc

This is actually listed in my JLPT 3 grammar book.

littlefreeze

Is だい only used when there's a negative nuance (i.e. when someone is being scolded?)

jacobhart

There is some screw up because the second "dai" is supposed to be 第 which should be deleted because it has nothing to do with grammar.

bamboo4

is 'dai' is masculine?

whitepeacock

I looked in the PDF of Meguro Language Center for JPLT2 and I didn't found strings "だい。" or "だい?" in the list of grammar points appearing in past test.
I looked in the site http://www.japonin.com/intermediate-grammar-list.php and there is no reference too.
Are you sure this is useful for level 2 of JPLT?

赤毛

@Amatuka technically that sentence would mean "when are you going to be awake until", yes, but in this context it's sounds like a scold (I believe this was what the author was trying to convey). (Same in Korean and works for many situations to scold a continuous action)

roastpumpkin