Meaning of "Da to" ?

[Flamehearted]

Could anybody help me with an explanation of when "da to" is used ?

E.g what is the sense in these sentences ?

1) タクシー　だと　ここから　１時間ぐらいで　行きます

２）　日曜日　いい　天気だと　いいですね

Tx In Advance !

Martin

[maxiewawa]

'Da' is a version of the copola.
'To' is a particle, similar to when we put quotation marks around something.

When you get 'da to' after something, if it is the thing before it, something happens.
If you can make sense out of that last sentence, well done, because I'm not sure that I understand it. Let's just go through your examples:

タクシー　だと　ここから　１時間ぐらいで　行きます.
If it's (by) taxi, it will take about an hour.

日曜日　いい　天気だと　いいですね
If the weather on Sunday is good, it will be pleasant.

Basically, da to sets up a situation where 'if it's A, then B'.

[NickT]

Basically what maxiwawa said, but just to clarify, と has multiple uses as a particle. In both of these examples, it is used as a conditional, "if", or sometimes translatable as "when", but not as a quotation marker.

If (we go) by taxi, from here it will take one hour.

If Sunday is good weather, it will be good, won't it.

It is also worth point out that だと can also be used where と is being used as a quotation marker. This is a different usage and a different meaning to those above. Here と is usually translated as "that"

日曜日はいい天気だと思います。

I think that the weather on Sunday will be good.

When だ is and isn't required before と is the topic of another post. I will let someone else explain...