Help with a translation from an anime
 

Hi! I'm trying to translate this rules taken from the anime Death Note:
人間は、いつか必ず死ぬ。死んだ後にいくところは、無 である。
I know the translation is: "All humans, without exception, eventually die. After they die, the place they go is the nothingness.

Well.. my problem is that I can't understand it very well:
1)If "death" is "死", then what is "死んだ"? Maybe だ is the plain form of "to be"?

2)いくとこる: I think this is the verb 行く, but what declination is it?

3)無である: de aru: what is it? Is it a declination of です?

死んだ is the past tense of 死ぬ。 後 is after. Therefor, 死んだ＋後 = After they die(d). Death is not being used as a noun in this sentence, but as a verb, so the accompanying okurigana must follow it.

ところ(所) is place. Therefor いくところ is literally 'the place [they] go'.

Yes, である is the most formal form of です。 In order of most formal to least formal: である　＞　です　＞　だ。 である isn't used that much these days except in certain speeches or documentaries and in literature.

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Isn't である also the only form possible when wanting to make a noun out of the copula? (であるの/であること). I have never known if there is a more colloquial way instead of using であること.

である is another way of saying です and is more commonly used in writing. です comes from である and である is probably "more formal". It is not a noun.

To expound on what MMM said, the etymology of です is:

であります

I have this vague worry that someone's going to come here and point out です is actually derived from でございます, though. I'll take MMM's word for it, though. It's been too long since I read up on the etymology of the copula.

Thank you for your answers! :)

I have an other question about Death Note. In the trailer of l-change the world, L says, at the very beginning, "Nihon he mukau tehai wo shite kudasai. [...] 97% no kakuritsu de kira wa nihon ni imasu. Koko ni wa modorenai kamoshiremasen ne".
What does tehai mean? I've found it is a noun meaning "arrangement", but then I couldn't translate the phrase.
And is there a difference between "modoru" and "kaeru"?

Ok, let's see. The first part could mean "Please make arrangements focusing on Japan", if tehai IS arrangement (my hiragana agrees with that, but always hard to tell out of romaji) and the second "There is a 97% probability that Kira is in Japan". Lastly, "He probably won't return to here, right?"

moderu is simply a more formal, polite way to say return, it's the same as kaeru in meaning, just the emphasis is slightly more high brow.

Two points I wanna make.

1. Does the sentence I hi-lited in red make sense to yourself, let alone the questioner?

It means "Make arrangements to go to Japan."

2. 戻る may be more foraml than 帰る but it has absolutely nothing to do with politeness. With these simpler verbs, politeness can only be added by conjugation, not by word (verb) choice. 戻られる, お戻りになる, お戻りになられる are the politer forms.

Hah. This formal/polite thing really screws with English speakers, because formal and polite seem so close in meaning. What people need to realize is that they are only slightly related.

FORMAL: Giving a presentation at work, writing an application essay for scholarship or university admissions.

POLITE: Speaking with your grandparents. Note that you're polite but not formal.

What I've just said is the difference in English.

Maybe with this example, people will stop screwing up formal/polite.