Asking questions in da/de aru style?

I'm still not to sure how to properly ask (pardon the split infinitive) questions in da/de aru style. I know da/de aru style is also used in written texts so this knowledge may be helpful in case I ever acquire the skill to produce Japanese texts, too bad my Japanese isn't good enough yet to start reading random texts and copy things from them, though. :/

Anyway, I know you can't say "sore wa * da ka". It sounds really "wrong" and awkward even to my ears.

I know you can say "na no ka" (which, according to my Japanese language pal sounds a bit strong and rude, though: kore wa koohii na no ka??)
I guess for the female speak variant you'd simply have to drop the "ka". "na no". I guess after i-adjectives the question markers are simply dropped in da/de aru style and you simply raise your intonation at the end of the sentence, by the way?

That's all I know. Are there any other possibilities, preferrably ones that don't come across as too rude? Thanks in advance.

Incidentally, is there any decent beginner reading material on the Net? I don't think I've found any yet. ☝

Well, you're dealing with informal speech, so it should only be used with people whom you are close to. It seems to me that rudeness isn't so much of a factor in those situations, but I could be wrong.

The question marker ka is added to the end of informal sentences exactly the same way as it is added to formal ones, exept that it overrides the copula (da/de aru). E.g.

Doko e iku tsumori ka.
Kutsu wa doko ni aru ka.
Sono kuruma wa takai ka.

Note that the question marker is dropped in conversation a lot, so the above sentences could be said without it and with a rising intonation. In formal writing, however, it is never dropped. This page is written in formal style. It will give you a good idea of how formal Japanese writing looks.

I know you can say "na no ka" (which, according to my Japanese language pal sounds a bit strong and rude, though: kore wa koohii na no ka??)
I guess for the female speak variant you'd simply have to drop the "ka". "na no". I guess after i-adjectives the question markers are simply dropped in da/de aru style and you simply raise your intonation at the end of the sentence, by the way?

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Yes, they are otokokotoba, but as far as I know it is perfectly OK in conversational speech to drop the ka and use a rising intonation with da as the final particle. (Kirei na no da, kirei nanda?, muzukashii da? etc). Although the da is often dropped in the case of i-adjectives or no （かな） is added as a tag indicating emphasis or emotion for women. Is this what you were asking?

Elizabeth said:

Although the da is often dropped in the case of i-adjectives or no （かな） is added as a question tag for women.

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Well, in Standard Japanese da never follows i-adjectives. The polite copula desu is added only for politeness, and i-adjectives act more like verbs than nouns. E.g. Utsukushii means "it is beautiful," and the phrase utsukushii kimono is closer to the English "a kimono that is beautiful" than it is to "a beautiful kimono." However, I know that there is a dialect (don't know which one, except to say that it's the one that Chichi from "Dragonball Z" speaks) in which you will hear things like "ora wa iku da." I'm not sure about the nuances with that though.

Source: Teach Yourself Japanese

As for no, men also use it when asking questions, but not when making statements. The sentence "kyou no kaigi e iku no?" could be spoken by either a man or a woman.

Source: Teach Yourself Japanese

Glenn said:

Well, in Standard Japanese da never follows i-adjectives. The polite copula desu is added only for politeness]

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Something else good to know. I actually couldn't think of any personal examples, but had it in mind that desu/da were always grammatically interchangeable. And I did know that about 'no' it just slipped my mind. Must be jet lag....