です

Etymology
The copula is thought to be a contracted version of, from ; however, there are other possibilities, namely , from ; , from ; , from ; and , from.

Verb

 * 1)  to be

Usage notes
The perfective form is, volitional , conjunctive. Other forms are not used.

Plain form of verb + /  is nonstandard. The standard form is verb ren'yōkei + /. However, both plain form of verb + and verb ren'yōkei +  are valid in Standard Japanese – the former mainly expresses conjecture and the latter mainly expresses volition.

For the past tense of an -i adjective, the adjective + is nonstandard and generally considered a common grammatical mistake made by non-native speakers. The standard form is instead to use the past form of the -i adjective +. For the forms and, there are synonyms  and.

This word is phonologically an enclitic, similar to particles. It is classified as in traditional Japanese grammar.