What nuance does「んだって」add here?
It’s the beginning of *Hanako-kun* where the speaker is telling a ghost story. I figure the「ん」is giving a questioning tone, and the「って」is like “so they say.” But I thought「だ」would add a sense of definite affirmation, at odds with a rhetorical question. Is it just needed to attach the「って」to?
2 comments
んだ is abbreviation of のだ which marks a phrase explaining something.
の can also ASK for an explanation too but you’re right then that it wouldn’t be paired with だ. And it would be said with a questioning tone.
I apologize I am in the middle of something, so I can’t verify this in a reasonable timeframe, but I feel like I was just reviewing some “quotative” clause rules recently, and saw something about using だ when the quoted remark isn’t an absolutely direct quote, but more of a description of a quote:
e.g. “it was hot”, he said. 彼が「暑かった」って言いました
Versus
He said it was hot. 彼が暑かっただって言いました