だんだん details
gradually + rise
dandan agaru
gradually; little by little — a change that accumulates step by step
meaning: rise little by little
心配しなくていいよ。だんだん慣れるから。
shinpai shinakute ii yo. dandan nareru kara.
No need to worry — you get used to it little by little. casual
春が近づいて、だんだん日が長くなってきました。
haru ga chikazuite, dandan hi ga nagaku natte kimashita.
With spring coming, the days have been getting longer. neutral
- dictionary form
- i-adjective stem
- na-adjective
Examples
gradually — the change arrives in steps, and the steps are perceptible
心配しなくていいよ。だんだん慣れるから。
shinpai shinakute ii yo. dandannareru kara.
No need to worry — you get used to it little by little. casual
春が近づいて、だんだん日が長くなってきました。
haru ga chikazuite, dandan hi ga nagaku natte kimashita.
With spring coming, the days have been getting longer. neutral
話しているうちに、だんだん眠くなってきた。
hanashite iru uchi ni, dandan nemuku natte kita.
As we talked I got sleepier and sleepier. casual
ご指導のおかげで、作業の流れもだんだん分かってまいりました。
go shidou no okage de, sagyou no nagare mo dandan wakatte mairimashita.
Thanks to your guidance, I have gradually come to understand how the work flows. formal
Formation
だんだん{V}attaches to dictionary formだんだん{I-stem}くなるattaches to i-adjective stemだんだん{NA-stem}になるattaches to na-adjective
Notes
(どんどん食べて), which だんだん cannot urge — だんだん reports increments the
speaker watches rather than a pace the listener sets.
Related patterns
Similar
The same stepwise change on opposite ground — だんだん is the spoken word and reads chatty in written work, while 次第に is the prose one and sounds stiff in conversation; formality of speech is not the axis, so だんだん survives in keigo (だんだん分かってまいりました).
ますます needs a trend the listener already knows is running and pushes it further; だんだん needs no prior state, so a change noticed for the first time takes だんだん and refuses ますます.
Both answer "when will this get better?", but そのうち names a future point and says nothing about how the change gets there (そのうち慣れるよ); だんだん names the manner, so it can sit on a change already under way, where そのうち cannot.
Combines with
An adjective gives だんだん no verb to modify, so it reaches one through くなる — and in speech the pair runs straight on to てくる: だんだん暖かくなってきた.
だんだん states the increments; てくる anchors them to now, which is why the spoken default for a change already visible is だんだん〜てきた rather than the bare past.