Silly question from beginner!

Hey everyone!
let me start by apologizing for asking such a silly question but I started doing japanese on tuesday! I am on my own, and even though I am happy so far with what I learned (got katakana, hiragana and around 25 kanji and some super basic grammar down) as I progressed through the grammar book I started wondering about particles. So after all this rambling here comes the question:
if I wanted to say something super simple, like "this ice cream is delicious" the sentence that came to mind was
おいしいアイスクリーム...and then what?? aargh! so far I have learned (well, kind of) about the は も が - だ particles is that is the right name for it. I don't really know what です is for even though it everywhere basically.
Now from what I understand, I wouldn't have used は, yet that is what the unreliable google translate used(and obviously も wouldn't make much sense either). So, which one would be the right choice? Is the sentence even structured correctly? If you can spare a few words to try and make the whole thing clearer for me as well, I would much appreciate it.

Thanks!

おいしいアイスクリーム isn't a sentence; it's a phrase. It means "delicious ice cream". For "this ice cream is delicious," you're obviously going to need the word for "this" and you're going to need a predicate. Have you learned the word(s) for "this" yet? Hint: it's a bit trickier than it is in English, and I assume than it is in Italian too (assuming that's your native language). And yes, you will need は. Care to give it another shot?

このアイスクリームはおいしいです。

I think this would be what you're trying to say. この is this when it's followed by a noun like "this icecream is delicious" instead of "this is delicious." は is the particle that marks the topic.

I'm pretty new to Japanese as well so hopefully I'm not giving you bad advice.

all right! thanks to both of you!

i was about to say "damn you Gleeoch for answering the question for me!" but then I realized that I would have gotten it wrong if you hadn't!
that's because right after posting I learned これ それ あれ どれ yet I was unaware of この その あの(...? XD) どの!
"this ice cream is delicious" ----> このアイスクリームはおいしいです
but if I wanted to say
"this is delicious" ----> これはおいしいです same thing if I was saying "it's delicious". Correct?
assuming this is all good, I still wonder about です. From what I understand in a present tense simple sentence it would be fully interchangeable with だ. It is though the polite form and can be used in more situations (in terms of grammar). But would you use です if you were talking with a friend for example? or would you use だ？ Or could simply not use anything? (when talking for example)
Last thing, if I simply wanted to say "delicious!" would it be おいしい or おいしいです / だ ?
thanks you so much!

ps: I am a good old 'merican myself!

With だ I think it is used for more casual speech for sentences that end with a noun or a na adjective which means おいしい by itself would make sense because it's an i adjective. I think です is the polite way to end sentences that don't have verbs.

That's my current understand anyway. Hopefully it's correct haha.

Votra said:

"this is delicious" ----> これはおいしいです same thing if I was saying "it's delicious". Correct?

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Correct.

Votra said:

Last thing, if I simply wanted to say "delicious!" would it be おいしい or おいしいです / だ ?
thanks you so much!
ps: I am a good old 'merican myself!

Click to expand...

Just おいしい if you're just making a general statement without an addressee (like, "man, this is good!") or if you're talking to someone you know well, and おいしいです if you're talking to someone you don't know so well, like an acquaintance.

Gleeoch said:

With だ I think it is used for more casual speech for sentences that end with a noun or a na adjective which means おいしい by itself would make sense because it's an i adjective. I think です is the polite way to end sentences that don't have verbs.

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This is right. -i adjectives (おいしい, くろい, あさい, たかい, おもしろい, etc.) act as though they are verbs, so you don't use だ after them. です is only used because they don't have a polite form in-and-of themselves, like verbs do (いく vs. いきます, はなす vs. はなします, たべる vs. たべます, みる vs. みます, etc.). About the only way to express politeness with adjectives is to add です after them. So here are some examples:

ラーメンが すきだ。"I like ramen." (plain form)
ラーメンが すきです。"I like ramen." (polite form)

かのじょは きれいだ。"She is pretty." (plain form)
かのじょは きれいです。"She is pretty." (polite form)

かのじょは うつくしい。"She is beautiful." (plain form)
かのじょは うつくしいです。"She is beautiful." (polite form)

にくは たべない。 "I don't eat meat." (plain form)
にくは たべません。"I don't eat meat." (polite form)

There is a version of adjectives that are polite and don't use です, but mostly they're used in set expressions like ありがとうございます (from ありがたい), おめでとうございます (from めでたい and the polite prefix お), and おはようございます (from はやい and the polite prefix お). All of them can be shortened by dropping the ございます at the end, but that's what makes them polite. You could do this with other adjectives, but I don't think it's something that happens often and seriously. An example would be うつくしゅうございます (from うつくしい). Whether お should be at the beginning or not, I'm not sure, though I suspect not (not that I haven't suspected wrongly before, mind you).

ok guys I got it! thank you!