だった

About

だった attaches to a noun or な-adjective and indicates past tense. If だった comes at the end of a sentence, it indicates casual speech, but this is not necessarily true in cases where だった modifies a word in the middle of a sentence. だった may not attach to い-adjectives or verbs.

だった may be viewed as the past tense conjugation of だ, the casual present tense sentence ender, and as the casual version of でした in spoken Japanese. In written Japanese, だった indicates the formal "だ・である style".

Summary

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  だった turns a noun or な-adjective into the past tense.

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  だった indicates casual speech if it comes at the end of a sentence.

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  だった can be viewed as the past tense conjugation of だ.

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  だった can be viewed as the casual version of でした.

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  だった cannot attach to a verb or い-adjective.