5.3.1. What is the no da or n da ending?

N is a colloquial abbreviation for no. No, however, has several different usages (or, depending on how you look at it, there are several different nos). One usage is the "possesive" or "noun-joiner" usage, as in watashi no tokei, "my clock". However, this no is only very rarely abbreviated to n (the most common example, given by someone else already, is -nchi as an abbreviation of no uchi. For example Suzukinchi means Suzuki no uchi or "Suzuki's house").

Another usage of no is as a nominalizer, turning a verb into a noun. This usage is related to the word node. This usage of no is often abbreviated, in speech, to n. For example, hasitta nde tukareta "I'm tired because I ran".

Yet another usage of no is in the phrase XXX no da, meaning "you should XXX". This is used both in positive (iku n da!, "You should go", or just "Go!"), and in the negative (fuzakeru n ja nai!, "you shouldn't joke around", or just "stop joking around!"). This no is used very commonly in speech, and is very often said as n.

Edited from a post by David Luke.

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