Hello Duolingo-folk, 9+ years after I wrote this! Let me know if you need further clarification in the comments below.
All about Da! “Da” is mostly translated as “of”, but it has a very specific use all to itself. Keep an eye out and you may just find a future post about “de“, which is another word often translated as “of”.
Basically, “da” is used to relate some quantity to some type of thing. In a phrase:
- X da Y = X of Y
X is some quantity and Y is a type of thing. The phrase shows that you have X amount of Y. X must be a quantity and Y must be an indefinite type.
So X is easy, it could be a bunch, a little, a dozen, a litre, a box, a lot, a flask, you get the idea!
What’s Y though? What’s indefinite? The answer is, Y must only be a type of thing, a concept of a thing, it can’t be a particular group of things. So in the title “a clutch of eggs”, Y is eggs. Eggs is indefinite. “Eggs” does not refer to any particular eggs at all. It’s just talking about the concept of eggs. Then with “da” we take some portion of this type of thing, eggs.
- skatolo da ovoj = a box of eggs
If we’re talking about certain eggs, and not just the general idea of eggs for Y, then “da” cannot be used!
- Mi ŝtelis skatolon el viaj ovoj = I stole a box of your eggs
Here Y is “your eggs”, those are particular eggs, not just the concept of eggs. Therefore, “da” cannot be used!
Additional notes:
Numbers are quantities, but they are allowed to directly refer to nouns, so you don’t need a “da“:
- Mi havas du ovojn = I have two eggs
- Mi havas skatolon da ovoj = I have a box of eggs
The exception is when you’ve got a number that in noun form (ending in “o”), then it acts like a grouping:
- Mi havas milionon da ovoj = I have a million (of) eggs.
This is because a noun cannot describe another noun I believe!
If X is an adjective (a-word), it is allowed to directly describe the noun (Y), so you do not use “da”:
- Mi havas multajn ovojn = Mi havas multe/multon da ovoj = I have a lot of eggs
Why is it possible to say “glaso da vino” and “glaso de vino” ?
Because they mean different things!
Following from a couple examples from the PMEG:
“Glaso de vino” is more like “wine glass” – a glass in which wine was present, or is usually present. And “glaso da vino” uses “glaso” as a quantity, it’s a glass-sized amount of wine, or a glass full of wine, a “glass of wine”.
In such cases, “da” and “de” answer different questions:
- How many soldiers are there? – Grupo da soldatoj (A group of soldiers)
- What kind of group is that? – Grupo de soldatoj (A group of soldiers)
Old Adventures in Esperanto 
You should also make a note that “da” cannot be used with the “-om” correlatives. I see that mistake lots.
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Kiel vi intencas?
Ĉar “iom da Y”, “tiom da Y”, “kiom da Y” kaj tiel plu, certe estas akcepteblaj, laŭ mia komprenado.
Ekz. jen: http://bertilow.com/pmeg/gramatiko/rolmontriloj/rolvortetoj/da/bazaj_reguloj.html
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Lernu.net says “it would be incorrect to say ‘kiom da vi volas’ because you should put the quantity right after ‘kiom'”. Can they be trusted?
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Certainly that phrase should be “kiom vi volas?” = “how much do you want?”. Because “kiom” can be used either adverbially or substantively. As an adverb it can directly describe the verb “volas”. But you can’t directly describe a noun with an adverb/noun in Esperanto! So if I wanted to say, “how many apples do you want?” I think I’d say:
“Kiom da pomoj vi volas?”
At least, this is how I understand it! I’ll let you know if I learn anything to the contrary.
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But… soldiers are not an abstract concept, so you shouldn’t be able to use “da”.
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The word on the right of the ‘da’ need not be abstract in the sense you are thinking. It is only abstract in the sense that it is a ‘type’ of thing. You cannot be referring to a specific group, or certain set of things when using ‘da’.
‘Soldiers’ is a type of thing. When we are saying how many instances of that type there are, we use ‘da’.
‘Grupo da soldatoj’ means there is a ‘group’ where the members of the group are of type ‘soldier’. This group isn’t extracted from a specific set of soldiers; you wouldn’t use ‘da’ if the term on the right was ‘the soldiers over there’.
In ‘Grupo da soldatoj’, the ‘soldiers’ bit is only telling you a type, so ‘da’ is appropriate.
Does this make sense? I could try to elaborate further if need be.:)
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Perfect sense! You do such a great job on explaining things to my slow mind.
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Good good! Your mind does not seem slow at all!
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Oni devas gardi sin kontaux kutimaj eraroj: ‘duono da’, ‘triono da’ ktp. Ial (mi ne komprenas kial) oni devas uzi ‘de’ kun frakcioj.
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Mi pensas ke mi eble scias la respondon.
Se ni havas “X de/da Y”, kaj “Y” estas limigita kvanto, ni devas uzi “de”, ĉar “Y” ne plu estas nelimigita kaj nedifinita.
Do, se “X” estas frakcio, ĉi tio implicas ke (Angle=”implies that”?) “Y” estas difinita unuopa kvanto (tial, oni ne devas uzi “da”).
La jeno estas la aktuala paĝo, jen la sekcio, kiu komencas “Se unu-nombra O-vorto jam per si mem esprimas klare limigitan kvanton, oni ne uzu da”
http://bertilow.com/pmeg/gramatiko/rolmontriloj/rolvortetoj/da/detalaj_reguloj.html
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Dankon, nun mi komprenas =)
\\ implicas ke (Angle=”implies that”?) \\
Jes! Pri kio vi dubas?
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Ne dankinde! Bone!
Mi ne certas… Mi pripensis “signifas”, sed leginte kelkajn difinojn, mi ne havas dubojn! 😀
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